From His Invisible Wife to the World's Icon novel Chapter 50

Lydia met Frederick's terrifyingly dark eyes.

He was staring at Gable with murderous rage, absolutely furious that someone had tried to drug him.

"Sir, Madam, I swear I didn't put the poison in! I spent two hours brewing this tonic..." Gable cried out frantically, a hint of genuine pity for the wasted soup in her voice.

"You're lying!" Sierra's scream pierced the room.

Frederick looked down at Sierra. Her eyes were brimming with tears as she played the ultimate victim. "She's framing me! How could I ever hurt Lydia? My mom would never do that either!"

His voice dropped to a soothing murmur. "Relax. If you didn't do it, no one can frame you..."

"Sir, I have proof." Gable pulled her phone from her pocket and spoke with deadpan certainty. "When Ms. Byron met with me this afternoon, I recorded the conversation."

All the color drained from Sierra's face. She violently lunged at Gable, but Gable had already hit play and raised the phone high above her head.

*"A million dollars is more than you'll make in a lifetime. Just slip this powder into her food..."*

*"Ms. Byron, what kind of drug is this? It won't kill her, will it? I can't be part of a murder."*

*"It won't kill her. It's just..."*

*"Just what? If you don't tell me exactly what it is, I won't do it."*

*"It'll just make her permanently sterile. Don't worry about it."*

It was unmistakably Cecilia's voice.

Sierra looked at Frederick in absolute terror. "Fred... Frederick, that's not my mom's voice..."

"Sir, Madam, I also took a picture." Gable pulled up a photo on her phone. It clearly showed Cecilia, wearing sunglasses, sliding a packet of white powder across a table.

Sierra collapsed onto the floor, still frantically trying to spin her web of lies. "Frederick, she's framing me! Voices can be faked with AI! And that powder in the picture could be anything!"

Frederick's eyes darkened. He stared at Sierra's pathetic, tear-stained face for two agonizing seconds before slowly turning to look at her.

For a split second, the question flashed through Lydia's mind.

*If they haven't slept together... If he only offered her a child as compensation because he thought I caused her infertility... Maybe he isn't completely beyond redemption?*

She watched his thin, cruel lips part. "Cecilia wouldn't do this to you."

Meeting his emotionless, dead eyes, her legs gave out. She stumbled backward, only staying upright because Gable quickly wrapped an arm around her waist.

Gable pulled a bank card from her pocket. "Sir, you can run the trace yourself. This is the card Ms. Byron gave me this afternoon. There's exactly a million dollars on it."

"Okay."

Lydia drove away from Tidal Crest Manor with Gable in tow.

In the second-floor master bedroom, Frederick stood by the floor-to-ceiling windows, watching the Porsche disappear into the black night.

He dialed Cecilia's number.

The moment she answered, she sounded ecstatic. "Mr. Foster?"

"Ms. Byron. Sierra is young. I won't hold this against her."

"But you are not a child."

"A million dollars. An audio recording. A packet of drugs. The evidence is airtight. I can have you thrown in a cell whenever I please."

Cecilia's horrified voice crackled through the speaker. "Mr. Foster, please, listen to me..."

"There is nothing to explain."

"Lydia was indeed the wife my father forced upon me."