Chapter 12
In the hospital room, Margaret stared at Lucas for a long moment before asking, “Where’s Emily?”
Lucas froze. Grief surged in his eyes again. “She…”
Margaret was old. She couldn’t handle another shock.
Σ
Clenching his fists, he steadied himself and told a half-truth, omitting Emily’s death.
“After what she did to you, I sent her abroad. I’ll bring her back when she admits her mistake.”
Margaret struggled upright in bed. “Nonsense! Emily would never hurt me! It was that mistress of yours!”
Lucas’s eyes widened in disbelief. “What? Impossible.”
He knew Lillian-she was so gentle she wouldn’t even step on an ant. How could she try to kill Margaret?
“Check the security footage if you don’t believe me!” Margaret snapped.
Soon, Lucas ordered his men to pull the surveillance tapes.
When the evidence lay bare before him, his voice turned arctic. “Bring Lillian here. And call the police.”
When Lillian entered, Lucas sat with his back to the door, the TV replaying the footage of her smothering Margaret.
On the table before it were stacks of proof exposing Lillian’s schemes-her false accusation that Emily had leaked her
private photos to an auction house, along with the scalding oil attack, every scheme laid out like a prosecutor’s exhibit.
“Explain.” He didn’t look at her, just watched the screen. His tone was colder than late autumn.
Lillian paled. “Lucas, these are fake! You know I’d never-”
Lucas laughed. “Lillian, you’re just a mistress. Where did you find such audacity? No-you’re not even that. Just an
actress.”
Rising, he pronounced her sentence like death itself. “Since you love framing people so much, you’ll do it from prison. I’ll
make sure you’re… well taken care of.”
He emphasized those last words.
As cold steel clamped around her wrists, Lillian finally broke. “These past months… did you ever love me?”
“Never.”
Lucas fell ill afterward, bedridden for weeks.
Until his assistant said, “Mr. Black, Lillian demands to see you. Claims it’s about Miss Carter.”
At Emily’s name, he was on his feet. “Get the car. We’re going.”
A month in prison had hollowed Lillian to a ghost.
Chapter 11
10.78%
