Chapter 7 - SABINA’S CONFESSION
-7
The television image trembled.
Sabina’s eyes were red.
Her polished appearance had disappeared completely.
For the first time since Chadworth had known her, she did not look powerful.
She looked hunted.
“Where are you?” Chadworth demanded.
Sabina glanced toward someone beyond the camera.
“I don’t know.”
“Who has you?”
“I can’t see his face.”
His.
Chadworth noticed the word.
“Who killed Evelyn?”
The gloved figure moved closer.
Sabina flinched.
“Tell him,” the distorted voice said.
Sabina closed her eyes.
“Dr. Voss.”
Edmund whispered, “Jesus.”
Chadworth stared at the screen.
“Why?”
“Because Evelyn found out what he was doing.”
“With the medical records?”
“Not only that.”
Sabina swallowed.
“Voss had been falsifying neurological diagnoses for wealthy clients for years.”
“What clients?”
“Families.”
“Why?”
“To control estates.”
The horror of the scheme began unfolding.
Older patriarchs.
Warring heirs.
Guardianship proceedings.
Medical declarations.
If a physician could manufacture incapacity, fortunes could be redirected without killing anyone.
Sabina continued.
“He would create symptoms first.”
Chadworth’s jaw hardened.
“With drugs.”
She nodded.
“Low doses. Confusion. paranoia. memory problems. Then he documented the symptoms he caused.”
Edmund looked at Chadworth.
The fake diagnosis in Evelyn’s archive.
The supplements.
Everything aligned.
“How were you involved?” Chadworth asked.
Sabina looked ashamed.
“I recruited targets.”
“You selected people to poison?”
“At first, I didn’t know.”
“Don’t lie to me now.”
“I’m not.”
Her voice broke.
“When I started working for the consulting firm, I was twenty-three. They told me we were helping families protect elderly relatives from exploitation. By the time I understood what Voss was doing, I was already involved in illegal transfers.”
“And then?”
“He told me who Arthur Prescott was.”
“Your father.”
Sabina looked away.
“My mother believed it until she died.”
“Do you?”
“I don’t know anymore.”
That answer surprised him.
“Voss showed me documents. Letters. Payments. DNA reports.”
“The reports were fake.”
“I know that now.”
“When did you learn?”
“After I moved into your house.”
“Yet you stayed.”
Her face hardened with something like self-hatred.
“Yes.”
“You terrorized my daughters.”
Sabina began crying again.
“I did.”
Chadworth felt no sympathy.
“Why?”
“Because Voss said if I built a medical history around the family, I could finally take back what Arthur stole from my mother.”
“By destroying two children?”
“I told myself I wasn’t hurting them.”
Lorelai stood in the doorway behind Chadworth.
He immediately lowered the volume.
But she had already heard.
Sabina saw her through the camera.
Her face collapsed.
“Lorelai.”
The girl said nothing.
“I’m sorry.”
Lorelai’s expression became hard.
“You said Daddy would stop loving me.”
Sabina closed her eyes.
“I know.”
“You said Mommy left because she was tired of me.”
Chadworth felt as though someone had struck him.
Sabina whispered, “I’m sorry.”
Lorelai turned away.
Chadworth wanted to end the call.
But he needed the truth.
“What happened the night Evelyn died?”
Sabina looked toward the gloved captor.
Then back at Chadworth.
“She met me.”
“Why?”
“She found my mother’s settlement agreement. She wanted to help me prove whether Arthur was really my father.”
Chadworth remembered Evelyn’s extraordinary capacity for compassion.
Even toward someone who represented danger.
“She offered you help?”
“Yes.”
“And you betrayed her.”
Sabina nodded.
“I told Voss.”
“Why?”
“Because he convinced me Evelyn was trying to protect you.”
“She was.”
“No. I mean protect your inheritance by proving I wasn’t Arthur’s child.”
Sabina shook her head.
“I believed him.”
“What did Voss do?”
“He followed her.”
“Were you there?”
“At first.”
Chadworth’s entire body became still.
“Tell me everything.”
Sabina inhaled.
“We met at Bellweather Restaurant outside the city. Evelyn had documents. She showed me evidence that some of Voss’s DNA tests were fabricated.”
“What did you do?”
“I called him from the restroom.”
“And?”
“He told me to keep her there.”
“How long?”
“Twenty minutes.”
“What happened when she left?”
“I followed her to the parking lot.”
Sabina’s voice became quieter.
“Voss was waiting.”
Chadworth felt cold.
“What did he do?”
“He spoke to her.”
“About what?”
“I couldn’t hear. They argued.”
“Then?”
“Evelyn got into her car. Voss got into another car.”
“The black sedan.”
Sabina nodded.
“I drove away.”
“You left her.”
“Yes.”
“Knowing he was following her.”
“Yes.”
Chadworth’s voice became deadly calm.
“And you claim you didn’t kill her.”
“I didn’t touch her car.”
“But you helped put him behind her.”
Sabina began sobbing.
“Yes.”
The gloved figure suddenly placed another photograph beside her.
This one showed Evelyn standing beside her car.
Taken at a roadside gas station.
Timestamp: 9:41 p.m.
Next photograph.
Dr. Voss’s black sedan.
9:43.
Then another.
A third vehicle.
A dark SUV.
9:44.
Marcus leaned toward the television.
“What the hell?”
The SUV’s license plate was visible.
He typed it into his tablet.
Then stopped.
Chadworth saw his expression.
“Whose?”
Marcus looked at Edmund.
Edmund frowned.
“What?”
Marcus turned the screen.
The SUV had been registered to Carlisle Strategic Holdings.
Edmund’s company.
Chadworth turned.
Edmund looked genuinely stunned.
“That vehicle was stolen.”
“When?”
“The night Evelyn died.”
“Did you report it?”
“Yes.”
Marcus searched.
“No report.”
Edmund grabbed the tablet.
“I called my office. My assistant handled it.”
“What assistant?”
Edmund’s face slowly changed.
“Claire.”
“Claire who?”
“Claire Voss.”
Silence.
Dr. Theodore Voss’s daughter.
Chadworth stared.
“Your assistant was Voss’s daughter?”
“She used her mother’s surname professionally.”
“For how long?”
“Six years.”
“And you never thought that was relevant?”
“I didn’t know Theodore Voss was involved until tonight.”
On the television, Sabina began shaking her head frantically.
“No.”
Chadworth turned toward the screen.
“What?”
“She was there.”
“Who?”
“Claire.”
“The night Evelyn died?”
Sabina nodded.
“At the restaurant.”
“Why?”
“She drove Voss.”
Chadworth looked at Edmund.
Edmund appeared physically ill.
Sabina continued.
“Claire wasn’t just his daughter.”
“What do you mean?”
“She ran everything.”
The gloved figure suddenly struck the table.
Sabina screamed.
“Enough.”
The distorted voice was angrier now.
The video started to fade.
Chadworth shouted.
“Wait!”
Sabina looked desperately into the camera.
“Chadworth!”
“What?”
“There’s something you need to know about Rosamund.”
Rosamund froze.
Chadworth looked at her.
Sabina spoke quickly.
“She didn’t come to your house only because of Evelyn.”
“Stop,” Rosamund whispered.
Sabina continued.
“She came because of Daniel Harker.”
The missing auditor.
Chadworth looked from the television to Rosamund.
“What about him?”
Sabina smiled sadly.
“Ask her who he was.”
The screen went black.
Every eye turned toward Rosamund.
For several seconds, she said nothing.
Then she reached into the pocket of her apron.
She removed an old photograph.
Daniel Harker stood beside a much younger Rosamund.
His arm around her shoulders.
Both smiling.
May you like
Rosamund looked at Chadworth.
“He was my brother.”
