“After you disappeared, after they declared you dead, Leonidn’t let it go. I hired investigators-the best in the business. Had them look into everything about that night. Your mother’s death, the hospital records, the security footage, the medication logs.”
He found what he was looking for and turned the screen toward me
The morphine pump in your mother’s room was tampered with. Someone changed the dosage from two milligrams per hour to twenty-five milligrams per hour. That’s more than ten times the prescribed amount.”
I felt bile rise in my throat,
‘Someone murdered her.”
“Yes,” Julian said quietly.
“And we know who.”
He swiped to another file, and I saw what looked like grainy security footage.
A woman in scrubs, her face partially obscured by a surgical mask, entering a hospital room.
The timestamp read 5:43 AM.
“This is from the hospital’s security system,” Julian explained.
“The woman you’re looking at isn’t a real nurse. She used a stolen ID badge to access the oncology ward. She was only in your mother’s room for six minutes, but that was all the time she needed.”
“To kill her,” I said, my voice flat.
“To adjust the morphine pump,” Julian corrected grimly.
‘And to make sure Josephine died believing I’d sent her.”
I looked up from the phone, confusion warring with horror.
“What do you mean?”
Julian’s expression darkened.
r
“The hospital room had an audio backup system-something to do with liability and patient care documentation. Most of the time, the recordings are just ambient noise, medical staff doing their rounds. But that morning–”
He swiped to another file, this one an audio player.
“That morning, we caught something.”
My hand was shaking as I pressed play.
f
C
Chapter 274-
all I could hear was the steady firep of medical expopment, 2200 duda hiss of oxygen, the distant of essay
Then a Goor opening, soft footsteps approaching the bed.
And then a voice – female, cultured, dripping with false sympathy,
‘Poor Josephine. You really thought she’d be happy with kim, didn’t you? That your fetle loster trufetes wold be enough to Starting ser
I felt my breath catch.
The voice was unfamiliar to me, but there was something in its tone-something cold and calculated that made my skin crawl.
The voice continued, softer now, almost tender.
“He sent me, you know, Julian. He wanted me to deliver a message before you died. He wants you know that Elena was never anything more than a contract to him. A burden he’s been trying to escape for three years. And now that you’re gone, now feat she has no one left to or to-well, it wou be
long before she realizes she’s better off dead too.”
I heard a weak sound-my mother trying to speak, trying to protest-but the voice talked over her, relentless.
“Don’t try to talk, Josephine. Just listen, Julian sent someone-sent me-to make sure you understood the truth before the end. Your daughter married a monster. And there’s nothing you can do to save her now. Just close your eyes and let go. It’ll all be over soon.”
The audio cut off, leaving only the sound of my ragged breathing filling the silence.
I stared at the phone in my hands, my vision blurring with tears I couldn’t hold back.
“That’s Victoria Astor,’ Julian said, his voice hollow.
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