Chapter 6 - The Voice from the Grave
The room descended into a stunned, breathless silence as Detective Miller placed a portable speaker onto the mahogany table and tapped his tablet. The digital recording filled the boardroom with horrifying clarity.
“If you ever touch Selena again, I swear I’ll kill you.”
The violent impact of the knife. The wet, ragged gasp of a dying woman.
The sound of Julian stepping over my bleeding body.
“She’s gone.”
“I did it, Selena. Just like you said.”
“We’re free.”
Several female board members covered their mouths in horror. Arthur Pendelton shoved his chair back in sheer revulsion, staring at Julian as if looking at a rabid animal.
Julian’s face drained of every drop of color. He gripped the edge of the table, his knuckles turning white, his knees buckling beneath him. "No... that’s... that’s an AI deepfake! That is fabricated evidence! Nora is in a coma, she couldn't have authorized this!"
"Nora isn't in a coma, Julian," a voice rang out from the doorway.
The federal marshals parted.
I walked into the boardroom, flanked by Dr. Caleb Reed. I was wearing an elegant, tailored black velvet coat that concealed my surgical dressings while framing my posture with unshakeable authority. My head was held high, my dark hair falling over my shoulders, my eyes locked directly onto my husband’s terrified face.
"Nora..." Julian choked out, his voice barely a squeak. He stumbled backward until his back hit the glass window, looking at me as though a phantom had risen from the depths of hell to claim his soul.
"Good afternoon, Julian," I said, my voice cutting through the frozen air like a razor. "I believe you were about to vote my thirty percent shares?"
Selena screamed, losing all composure, and lunged toward the side exit, but two federal marshals intercepted her instantly, slamming her against the paneled wall and wrenching her arms behind her back. "Get off me! It was his idea! Julian bought the knife! He stabbed her, not me!"
"Shut up, you bitch!" Julian shrieked, panic completely shattering his mind as two marshals pushed him down onto his knees beside the mahogany table. "She set me up! Selena told me to do it! She scratched herself downtown!"
"Both of you are under arrest," Detective Miller stated loudly, clicking the cold steel handcuffs around Julian's wrists with a definitive, mechanical snap. "You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law."
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As Julian was hauled to his feet, he looked at my stomach, his eyes wide with frantic, sobbing desperation. "Nora! The babies! Think of our children! You can't let them grow up without a father!"
I looked down at the man who had stepped over my dying body for a mistress's scratch. "You aren't a father, Julian. You were just the monster they survived."
