Chapter 4 - The Glass Room
The observation glass of holding room three was tinted, reflecting my pale, bruised face and the white bandage taped across my temple. Inside the small, sterile room sat Trevor. He had taken off his suit jacket, his tie loosened, his hair disheveled. He was nervously tapping his shoe against the linoleum floor, staring at his hands.
Detective Miller opened the heavy steel door. "Five minutes, Sarah. Officer Davis will be right outside."
I stepped into the room. The heavy door clicked shut behind me.
Trevor jumped up from his chair, his face twisting into an expression of desperate, frantic remorse. "Sarah! Oh God, Sarah, thank God! You have to tell them! You have to tell the detectives that I didn't know what Mom was doing! I swear to you on my life, I had no idea she put powder in those bottles!"
I didn't move. I stood four feet away from him, my arms crossed over my chest, staring at him as if he were a complete stranger.
"Did you take out two million dollar life insurance policies on our eleven-month-old sons three weeks ago, Trevor?" I asked flatly.
Trevor froze. The color drained from his face, his eyes darting wildly toward the corner security camera.
"Sarah... listen to me," Trevor stammered, stepping toward me with his hands raised in a pleading gesture. "That... that was for our future! Business was slow at the firm! Mom said... Mom said it was smart to have child rider policies in case something terrible happened! It’s standard practice among high-net-worth families!"
"Standard practice to insure infant twins for four million dollars while your mother poisons them?" I asked, my voice so cold it made him flinch.
"I DIDN'T KNOW SHE WAS GOING TO KILL THEM!" Trevor screamed, bursting into hysterical tears as he grabbed his own hair. "She told me she was going to use a mild sedative! She said... she said she was just going to make them sick enough so that social services would deem you an unfit mother! She said you would lose custody, I would get the house, and we could move to Chicago!"
I stared at him in utter horror.
He hadn't planned to murder them—he had merely agreed to poison his own infant sons into a medical crisis so he could destroy my reputation, take my children away, and strip me of my home! But his mother, driven by her own dark insanity, had doubled the dose to claim the insurance payout and erase the children entirely!
"You monster," I whispered. "You pathetic, greedy monster."
"Sarah, please!" Trevor dropped to his knees on the cold floor, grabbing the hem of my jeans, crying hysterically. "I love you! I was confused! Mom was pressuring me every day! She held the trust fund over my head! She said she would cut me out of Dad's inheritance if I didn't go along with her plan! Please, tell them it was all Mom! Don't let them ruin my life!"
I looked down at the man I had once given my heart to.
I remembered the way he had dragged me away from my babies' coffins four hours ago. I remembered the way he had yelled at me while his mother's blood ran down my face.
I pulled my leg back, wrenching my jeans from his grasp.
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"You aren't going to Chicago, Trevor," I said, looking down at him with pure, unadulterated disgust. "You're going to a state penitentiary for conspiracy to commit murder. And when I am done with you, you won't have a single penny left to your name."
I turned my back on his hysterical wailing, knocked on the steel door, and walked out into the bright light of the corridor.
