Chapters (36)
Theo leans in slightly, his voice steady despite the storm that’s clearly raging inside him. “You’re not the only one who lost him, Aubrey. We all did. And we deserve to know the truth.”
Her sobs hitch, and she looks up, her tear-streaked face a mask of anguish. “The truth?” she whispers. “The truth is that I loved him. I would’ve done anything for him. And now he’s gone, and you’re sitting here trying to tear me apart.”
Morgan crosses her arms, her gaze unyielding. “We’re not trying to tear you apart, Aubrey. We’re just trying to understand. Because some things don’t add up. Like how you brought him sweet tea that day. And how he died of cyanide poisoning. Such a strange coincidence, don’t you think?”
Silence.
Aubrey freezes, her eyes locking on Morgan. For a split second, her mask slips, and a cold glint flashes in her gaze before she quickly looks away. “I—I didn’t know. I had no idea,” she stammers, her voice quivering.
Theo leans forward, his voice low and steady. “Didn’t you? You didn’t know that elderberries are toxic when they’re not prepared properly? Or that it can cause cyanide poisoning—even death?”
Her hands tremble as she sets her glass down. And just like that, the act is over.
The sobbing stops. The trembling lip disappears.
And when she looks up, her face is blank, her eyes cold and calculating.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” she says flatly, her voice devoid of emotion now.
A chill sweeps over me, sinking into my bones.
Morgan doesn’t blink, her voice steady as she presses on. “Don’t we? Because it’s funny how everything seems to circle back to you, Aubrey. Gabriel was looking into your past, and suddenly, he’s dead. Cyanide poisoning. The same thing you used in your ‘natural remedies’ at the cafe, if not prepared properly can show up in autopsy reports as cyanide poisoning.”
Aubrey’s lips curl into a faint, humorless smile. “You think you’re so clever,” she murmurs, her tone icy. “But you have no proof. You have nothing.”
Theo straightens, his expression hardening. “The truth has a way of coming out, Aunt Aubrey. It always does.”
Aubrey’s gaze flicks between us, her jaw tightening. For the first time, I see the cracks in her armor—real cracks, not the crocodile tears she used before.
“Careful, Teddy,” she says softly, her voice almost a whisper. “You don’t want to push too hard. You might not like what you find.”
The threat hangs in the air like a knife, sharp and glinting.
I don’t breathe.
Theo doesn’t move.
The world feels too small, the air too thin.
But Theo doesn’t back down.
And neither do I.