Chapter 9 - The Accusation
A cold shiver raced down my spine, freezing the breath in my lungs.
"That's insane," I stepped back, shaking my head violently. "I was six years old eighteen years ago! How could a six-year-old poison anyone?"
"Not eighteen years ago, darling," Victoria corrected smoothly, taking another step closer. "The poisoning started six months ago, right before she called all of you back to the house every Sunday for her little interrogation sessions."
Olivia looked at me, her eyes filled with sudden, agonizing doubt. "You lived here with her during those six months. You were the only one who made her morning tea."
"I took care of her because she was sick!" I shouted, my voice echoing off the mahogany bookshelves. "I loved her!"
"Love is a very expensive commodity in this family," Victoria said, walking over to the desk and picking up a silver teaspoon resting on a small saucer. "This spoon was tested by the forensic team yesterday morning. Traces of arsenic were found right on the rim."
I stared at the silver spoon, my mind racing. Anyone in the household could have touched it. Daniel, the servants, visiting contractors—or Victoria herself, who had just sneaked into the locked estate using a twenty-year-old key.
"I didn't touch that spoon," I said, keeping my voice steady despite the overwhelming panic threatening to swallow me. "And if you have forensic reports, why aren't the police here instead of you?"
Victoria smiled, a cold, calculating expression that looked terrifyingly similar to our grandmother's old portraits.
"Because the police don't know yet," Victoria said quietly. "I intercepted the lab results an hour ago. I wanted to give you a choice, just like grandmother always loved doing."
"What kind of choice?" Olivia asked, stepping between Victoria and me.
"Hand over your shares of the inheritance rights, sign the forfeiture papers, and walk out of those gates tonight," Victoria said, her tone turning razor-sharp. "Or I hand this evidence over to the federal investigators who just arrested Daniel, and you can spend the next twenty years sharing a cell with your dear brother."
Olivia looked at me, her expression torn between fear and self-preservation. The twenty-eight million dollars hung in the balance, but freedom hung by an even thinner thread.
"Don't listen to her," I urged Olivia, grabbing her arm gently. "She's setting us up. She wants the entire estate for herself!"
"And how do we know you didn't do it?" Olivia whispered, pulling her arm away from my grip. "You were always the quiet one, the one grandmother whispered secrets to in the library."
Before I could answer, the heavy oak doors of the library slammed open with a deafening crash.
Standing in the doorway was the federal investigator from earlier that evening, flanked by two armed officers.
"Nobody move," the investigator commanded, his hand resting on his holster. "We received an anonymous tip regarding an active homicide investigation tied to this estate."
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Victoria turned around, her expression perfectly composed, holding up the silver spoon.
"Officer," Victoria said smoothly, stepping forward with a manufactured look of distress. "Thank goodness you're here. I just caught my younger sibling trying to destroy the evidence of how she poisoned our grandmother."
