Chapter 6 - THE GLASS
I watched the video four times.
Daniel stopped it before a fifth.
“No.”
I slapped his hand away.
“Play it.”
“Emily.”
“Play it.”
He did.
Dad looked exhausted.
His hands trembled.
He described dizziness.
Vomiting.
Confusion.
Symptoms doctors blamed on his cancer treatment.
Then he said Victoria insisted on preparing every drink.
The video ended.
I ran to the bathroom and threw up.
Daniel waited outside.
Not inside.
I noticed that.
When I came out, he gave me water.
I stared at the glass.
Couldn’t touch it.
He set it down.
No comment.
The flash drive contained twenty-seven videos.
In one, Dad confronted Victoria.
She laughed.
Not about poison.
About money.
“You signed what I put in front of you.”
Dad answered.
“I was medicated.”
“You were weak.”
Then Ambrose entered.
The video cut.
Another file contained laboratory results.
Trace amounts of a heart medication Dad had never been prescribed.
Not enough to prove murder.
Enough to raise questions.
Police reopened his death investigation.
Victoria’s lawyer called it fabricated.
Then the original lab technician was found.
Retired.
Alive.
She remembered the sample.
She had reported the result to Dad’s private physician.
That physician died two years later.
His archived email still existed.
He had written to Victoria.
WE NEED TO DISCUSS THE UNEXPLAINED DRUG LEVELS.
Victoria replied.
HE TAKES SO MANY THINGS. STOP UPSETTING HIM.
The detective looked at me.
“This is serious.”
I asked.
“Can you arrest her?”
“Not yet.”
I hated those words.
Not yet.
Victoria still slept in a luxury hotel.
Still gave interviews.
Still called me unstable.
Then she filed for emergency guardianship over me.
At twenty-four.
Her petition claimed trauma had made me incapable of managing my affairs.
If granted, she could control my trust.
Again.
Daniel read the filing.
“She’s not stopping.”
“No.”
“What do you want to do?”
I looked at the court date.
Tomorrow morning.
“For once?”
I picked up Dad’s letter.
May you like
“I want to stop running.”
