Chapter 8 - Arthur’s Last Recording
Detective Lena Ortiz arrived within twenty minutes.
She had investigated Arthur’s death but closed the case after the medical examiner found no obvious trauma.
Now she watched the memory card footage in the mansion library.
The camera angle showed Arthur’s study.
The date was the night he died.
Arthur sat behind his desk, breathing heavily.
Calvin stood across from him.
Tabitha waited near the balcony.
“You altered my medication,” Arthur said.
Calvin answered, “We were trying to help.”
“You were trying to make me incompetent.”
Tabitha stepped forward.
“You were confused.”
Arthur looked directly at her.
“No. You needed me to look confused.”
He held up a document.
“My new will removes Kyle as executor and bars Calvin from purchasing any estate property.”
Calvin’s face darkened.
Arthur continued.
“Paige will control the house and garden. Kyle will receive his share through an independent trust.”
“You cannot do that,” Calvin said.
“I already did.”
Tabitha reached for the document.
Arthur pulled it away.
Then she grabbed the medication bottle from the desk.
“You need to take this.”
“No.”
Calvin moved behind Arthur’s chair.
The video briefly shook as if the camera had been touched.
Arthur tried to stand.
Tabitha forced two pills toward his mouth.
He knocked her hand away.
Calvin gripped his shoulders.
Arthur’s breathing became erratic.
Kyle covered his face.
Paige could not look away.
Arthur managed to press a button beneath the desk.
An alarm sounded faintly.
Tabitha panicked.
“His heart!”
Calvin released him.
Arthur collapsed.
Neither called an ambulance.
Instead, Calvin searched the desk while Tabitha checked Arthur’s pulse.
“He’s alive,” she said.
Calvin looked at the door.
“Find the will.”
They spent six minutes searching before Kyle arrived.
Only then did Calvin call emergency services.
The room was silent when the recording ended.
Detective Ortiz paused the screen.
“Your father may have survived if they called immediately.”
Paige closed her eyes.
Tabitha whispered, “We didn’t kill him.”
Ortiz looked at her.
“You changed his medication, restrained him during a medical emergency and delayed aid while searching for his will.”
Calvin said nothing.
Ortiz placed them both under arrest.
Then Kyle looked at Paige.
He knew he had helped cover the truth, even if fear controlled him.
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“I should be arrested too,” he said.
👉 Kyle was ready to confess—but Arthur’s letter revealed that he had known his son might be manipulated.
