Chapter 4 - THE DRUG IN MY HUSBAND'S BLOOD
Preston had always claimed smoke knocked him unconscious.
The sedative bottle suggested otherwise.
I found Gideon near the boardroom entrance.
“We need to talk.”
He saw my face.
“What happened?”
I told him.
Within thirty minutes, Naomi joined us in a private room.
“Could Preston have been prescribed that medication legitimately?” she asked.
“Maybe.”
“But why would Cassidy have the bottle now?” Gideon said.
Exactly.
Naomi photographed it discreetly after Cassidy left her clutch unattended in the coatroom.
We did not take it.
We did not need to.
The prescription number was visible.
My attorney obtained an emergency preservation request for the pharmacy records the following morning.
The results arrived two days later.
Preston had been prescribed the medication after claiming severe anxiety.
But he never collected it.
Parker did.
My husband’s supposedly dead twin had signed for Preston’s sedatives.
Three days before the fire.
I remembered finding Preston unconscious.
He had been strangely heavy.
Unresponsive even when I slapped his face.
I had blamed smoke inhalation.
“What if Parker drugged him?” I asked.
Gideon sat across from me.
“That would mean Preston might not have started the fire.”
I hated the tiny spark of relief inside me.
After everything Preston had done, some pathetic piece of my heart still wanted the man I once loved not to have tried to murder people.
Naomi did not indulge me.
“Even if he didn’t start the fire, we already have evidence of financial fraud, forged documents, adultery, and an apparent effort to frame you.”
I nodded.
She was right.
One truth did not erase another.
Then the forensic team found surveillance footage from a neighboring building.
At 10:18 P.M., Parker entered Barrett Development.
At 10:31, Preston entered.
At 10:46, Parker exited wearing Preston’s coat.
At 10:52, smoke appeared.
Preston remained inside.
I arrived at 10:56.
I remembered that night clearly.
Preston had called me.
His voice sounded wrong.
Slurred.
He said he forgot a file and needed help.
That call had brought me into the burning building.
“Was it Preston who called?” Gideon asked.
I opened my mouth.
Then stopped.
Five years ago, I never imagined I needed to distinguish between identical twins.
“What if it was Parker?”
Naomi requested the old phone records.
The call originated from Preston’s phone.
But the device pinged a cell tower three blocks from the building.
Not inside it.
Someone outside had called me using Preston’s phone.
Parker.
My skin went cold.
He drugged Preston.
Started the fire.
Then summoned me into it.
Why?
Gideon’s investigators found the answer inside the stolen-money records.
One week before the fire, I had accidentally signed a document Preston left on our kitchen table.
I remembered teasing him about making me his unpaid secretary.
That document was a whistleblower authorization.
Without realizing it, I had given auditors permission to access accounts held jointly in my name.
Parker discovered it.
If the audit happened, the stolen funds would be exposed.
He needed both Preston and me dead.
The fire had been designed to kill us together.
But I saved Preston.
I ruined Parker’s plan.
Naomi looked at me.
“So why has Preston protected his brother for five years?”
That was the question.
We got the answer that evening.
Gideon received a photograph from a private investigator.
Parker Barrett entering Cassidy Vaughn’s apartment.
Yesterday.
Then another photograph.
Cassidy opened the door.
Parker kissed her.
Not like strangers.
Not like conspirators.
Like lovers.
May you like
Gideon looked at me.
“Vivian, are we certain Cassidy’s baby belongs to Preston?”
