Chapter 5 - THE SYRINGE IN MY SISTER’S HAND
Paige’s hand shook.
The syringe contained clear liquid.
She looked more terrified than dangerous.
But frightened people can still cause irreversible harm.
“Put it down,” I said.
She began crying.
“You don’t understand.”
“Bradley said if we fail, he’ll take the house.”
“That house was bought with my money.”
“It’s not really ours.”
“I know.”
Her face collapsed.
Bradley had structured everything.
He convinced Margaret to deposit my transfers into accounts he controlled.
He inflated construction costs.
He arranged fake investments.
Then he loaned the stolen money back to them through shell companies.
My mother and sister believed they owned a luxury home.
In reality, Bradley could reclaim it whenever he wanted.
Paige’s pregnancy had made her more desperate.
Bradley promised to leave his wife and build a future with her.
But only if the compensation package arrived.
“What is in the syringe?” I asked.
“A sedative.”
“For Gwen?”
Paige nodded.
“Mom said she only needed to sleep through the meeting.”
“You heard her discuss the insurance.”
“I didn’t know about the policy until tonight.”
“Yet you still came here with a needle.”
She looked toward Gwen.
“I’m sorry.”
Gwen stepped behind me.
“Put it down.”
Paige lowered the syringe.
Then Margaret appeared behind her.
Without warning, she shoved Paige forward.
The syringe flew from her hand.
My mother held a heavy glass paperweight.
“You ruined everything,” she hissed.
I blocked the first swing with my forearm.
Pain shot through my wrist.
Gwen reached for the phone.
Margaret grabbed her hairless scalp and pulled her backward.
That was the moment my restraint ended.
I seized my mother’s wrist and forced the paperweight from her hand.
Paige screamed.
Officers rushed through the hallway seconds later.
Detective Chen entered with her weapon drawn.
“Hands where I can see them!”
Margaret went still.
Then she transformed instantly.
She began sobbing.
“My son attacked me.”
“He came home unstable.”
“He has been threatening all of us.”
Detective Chen looked toward the camera mounted above the study door.
Margaret had forgotten it existed.
The house security system recorded the entire attack.
Officers placed her in handcuffs.
Paige sat on the floor, shaking.
She admitted the syringe belonged to Bradley.
He had delivered it that afternoon.
Detective Chen ordered his arrest.
Police reached his office within twenty minutes.
It was empty.
His wife said he left for a business trip.
Airport records showed no flight.
His phone had been turned off.
Then officers searched the garage.
They found a locked freezer behind stacked furniture.
Inside were medical supplies, forged insurance forms, and several bottles of the same appetite-suppressing drug found in Gwen’s capsules.
A second shelf contained blood samples.
Each tube carried a name.
Gwen.
Margaret.
Paige.
And mine.
Bradley had been collecting biological material from all of us.
The purpose remained unclear until Rebecca found a laboratory invoice.
The testing company specialized in paternity and hereditary disease reports.
Paige’s name appeared beside a completed result.
Bradley was not the father of her child.
The biological father was listed as unknown.
When Paige saw the report, she denied it.
Then she remembered a company party three months earlier.
She had awakened in a hotel room with no memory of several hours.
Bradley told her she drank too much.
A second man had been present.
His name was Dr. Calvin Ross.
The same physician who signed Gwen’s life insurance medical form.
Bradley’s scheme had not only exploited my family financially.
It may have included assault.
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And according to the freezer inventory, Gwen was not the first sick woman whose identity they had used.
There were eleven additional names.
