Chapter 7 - Kimberly’s Desperate Betrayal
""Hannah, please don't hang up,"" Kimberly sobbed through the speaker, her voice trembling with panic. ""I am begging you. Just listen to me for five minutes.""
I sat at my kitchen counter, motioning for Samuel to come closer and putting the call on speaker. ""You have sixty seconds, Kimberly. After the garbage you posted on Facebook this morning, you're lucky I haven't added your name to the restraining order.""
""I deleted it! I'm sorry, I was just so angry and scared!"" she cried. ""Hannah, you don't understand what it's like living under their thumb. Mom and Dad have been bleeding me dry too! They promised me that Elmwood Ridge would eventually be signed over to me and Meline. That's why I went along with the DNA test thing at Christmas!""
Samuel leaned over the counter, his voice icy. ""You went along with tormenting an eight-year-old child because you wanted a house, Kimberly?""
Kimberly gasped, realizing Samuel was on the line. ""Sammy... please, listen to me. It wasn't my idea! It was Mom and Dad's entire plan from the beginning! In September, Dad lost another fifty thousand dollars on bad stock options. They were drowning in credit card debt. When Grandma mentioned she was setting aside two hundred thousand dollars for Fiona’s future college fund, Mom went ballistic. She said that Hannah probably cheated on you anyway during that conference in Chicago nine years ago, and that if they could demand a DNA test publicly, you’d be too proud to accept it, there’d be a huge fight, and Grandma would get disgusted and give everything to Meline instead!""
The sheer calculation of it was sickening. They hadn't merely doubted Fiona’s paternity; they had invented a completely baseless scandal out of thin air, weaponizing my daughter’s innocence to trigger a family collapse that would funnel Agnes’s wealth directly into their pockets.
""Why are you telling us this now, Kimberly?"" I asked coldly. ""To save your own skin?""
""Yes!"" she admitted shamelessly. ""Because they're at my house right now with suitcases! Dad is threatening to sue Vance & Sterling to contest Grandma’s mental competency, but the lawyer they consulted wants a twenty-thousand-dollar retainer that they don't have! Dad wants me to take out a second mortgage on my townhouse to pay for his legal fees! If I don't give them the money, Dad says I’m an ungrateful parasite who let my own mother get arrested!""
Samuel shook his head in disgust. ""You made your bed with them, Kimberly. You laughed when they insulted Fiona at dinner. You smirked while my daughter shrank into her seat.""
""I have proof!"" Kimberly blurted out, her voice cracking with desperation. ""I have text messages from the family group chat going back to November! Mom explicitly wrote out the plan to accuse Hannah of infidelity at Christmas dinner! She wrote: 'If we push Sam hard enough about the DNA test, he’ll walk out, Hannah will look guilty, and Agnes will have no choice but to cut them out of the will.' I will send you every single screenshot, timestamped and saved, if you just promise that Grandma won't cut Meline out of her college fund!""
Samuel and I looked at each other. Even in her moment of total desperation, Kimberly was still trying to bargain with family secrets to secure cash.
""Send the screenshots to Arthur Vance's email address,"" Samuel replied evenly. ""Whatever happens to Meline's college fund is entirely up to Grandma. But if you think your betrayal buys you forgiveness from us, you're dead wrong.""
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Samuel hung up before she could reply. Ten minutes later, Arthur Vance called our landline. Kimberly had delivered. Over forty screenshots landed in his inbox, laying bare every premeditated, malicious detail of Janice and Gerald’s conspiracy.
""This is the smoking gun,"" Vance told us with quiet satisfaction. ""If Gerald dares to file a petition claiming Agnes was unduly influenced or incompetent, these text messages will have him laughed out of court—and potentially prosecuted for civil conspiracy.""
