Chapter 14 - The Son Arrives
|
Jonah tapped the screen of his phone, and Cordelia’s own voice immediately filled the crowded hospital room.
“The insurance policy would have been difficult without it… The contractor did his part well enough… Loosened railing, old balcony, tragic fall… You were evidence waiting to happen.”
Cordelia’s aristocratic mask finally shattered. Her face cycled from deep irritation, to profound disbelief, to stark, naked terror as she realized what she was hearing.
“That is edited,” she snapped, her voice trembling slightly. “This is absurd. She is brain-damaged. She cannot consent to recording.”
Before the detectives could respond, the crowd in the hallway parted.
Adrian Voss walked in.
He was carrying a cardboard tray with two paper cups of expensive coffee and a glossy gift bag from the hospital’s luxury boutique. He was clean-shaven, dressed in a tailored navy overcoat, perfectly styled to play the devoted, exhausted husband arriving for the morning shift.
He stopped dead just inside the broken doorway. His eyes darted frantically around the room, taking in the drawn guns, the furious detectives, the dropped pillow on the floor, and finally, his mother.
He did not look at me. He did not run to my bedside to see if I was alive.
That singular lack of action told me everything I ever needed to know.
“Mother?” Adrian whispered, his voice cracking.
Cordelia turned toward him with a look of intense, demanding expectation. She had built him out of fear and approval, and now she expected him to save her.
“Adrian,” Cordelia commanded sharply. “Tell these officers this is a massive misunderstanding.”
Adrian stared at the pillow on the floor. Detective Ellison holstered her weapon and stepped toward him.
“Adrian Voss?” she asked.
May you like
“Yes,” he stammered, the coffee tray trembling in his hands.
“We need you to remain exactly where you are.”
