Nine C-Section, Nine Dead Sons, One Escape novel Chapter 7

Julian carried that file back to his office and locked himself inside.

He opened it. His hands shook uncontrollably.

By the ninth page, all the strength bled out of him. The file slipped from his fingers.

The words blurred into a red smear.

So much suffering. All of it Vivienne’s. And Priscilla, that viper.

He thought about the children.

Every one of them had marrow siphoned from their bodies moments after birth. Their crying hadn’t even stopped before their blood ran dry.

He remembered the first child’s death. Vivienne holding that purple, bruised little body and weeping through the whole night.

‘He walked in and said, “Just have another one.”

She looked up at him. Something behind her eyes cracked.

He didn’t pay attention.

The second. The third.

By the last one, she didn’t cry at all.

She just looked at him blankly. Like he was a stranger.

He’d done this to her.

The office door swung open.

Priscilla walked in carrying a cup of herbal tea, her face arranged in careful worry.

should eat something.”

He smacked the cup out of her hand.

Shock flickered across her face. Then her eyes welled up with practiced hurt.

“Julian, did someone upset you today?”

He said nothing.

“Julian. You

Priscilla pulled a cemetery plot contract from her purse and slid it toward him with an eager, placating

“Julian, I found a beautiful plot.”

smile.

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“Leaving Vivienne at the funeral home indefinitely, it’s not sustainable. The family has its reputation to think about…”

Julian’s gaze drifted to the corner of the office. The ice casket.

She lay inside it. Face destroyed. Body charred black.

And suddenly he saw it again, the way she looked before she jumped.

Clothes in rags. Body covered in wounds. The gash on her forehead still oozing blood.

On her knees, clutching his legs, forehead battering the floor, blood streaking. own flesh and blood…”

And what had he said?

“Please… he’s your

“One more sound out of you, and I’ll have the rest of them dug up and burned right alongside him!”

Then he kicked her off. Shielded Priscilla. Stepped back.

‘And she ran into the fire.

Julian lunged toward the ice casket and collapsed to his knees, his whole body heaving.

“Vivienne… I did you so wrong… I was blind… please… just look at me…”

The cold, controlled mask was gone. Tears dropped onto her cold face. His voice scraped out so raw it

was barely a whisper.

Priscilla stood to the side, disgust coiling in her gut, but she kept her voice gentle.

“Julian, the dead don’t come back. You need to mourn, but you also need to move on.”

“Vivienne’s spirit wouldn’t want to see you like this. Let them put her to rest. This family can’t go a day without a mistress, and I’m ready to be Mrs. Ashworth…”

Julian didn’t hear a word.

Priscilla bit her lip. Impatience edged into her voice.

herself.”

“Julian, honestly, she brought all of this on

“If she hadn’t shoved me down those stairs and destroyed my health. If she hadn’t let those spirits run wild. None of this would’ve happened…”

Before she could finish, Julian spun and drove his palm across her face.

Smack.

Priscilla hit the floor, her cheek swelling, blood trickling from the corner of her mouth.

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Julian laughed. Cold. Lethal.

“You still think you can play me?”

He grabbed the file off his desk and hurled it into her face.

The edge of the paper sliced her cheek open. A line of red bloomed.

Priscilla scrambled to open it. Her face went sheet–white. “No. That’s impossible! This is slander! I’m innocent!”

From outside, the assistant’s voice cut through.

“Mr. Ashworth. The investigation team reports the

psychic and the doctor have both confessed.”

The lead investigator stepped into the office and delivered his report on his feet.

“Mr. Ashworth, the investigation is closed. The psychic and Dr. Leonard Voss have confessed to everything.”

“Dr. Voss is a distant relative of Miss Holloway’s. To advance her position, he fabricated her immune system damage and claimed she required neonatal stem cell matching. He deliberately overdrew during multiple extraction procedures, resulting in the children’s deaths.”

“Miss Holloway also threatened the psychic’s family, forcing him to lie about Mrs. Ashworth being haunted by spirits.‘

“The branding, the flogging of the corpse, the cremation, all of it was under Miss Holloway’s direction.

The signed confessions are here.”

Priscilla collapsed on the floor, gray–faced.

Julian took the confessions and turned to her slowly.

His eyes were full of rage. And a frozen, bottomless cold.

“Priscilla Holloway. Do you have anything to say?”

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