The excuse was airtight.
Zachery bought it. The tension visibly drained from his shoulders.
He slipped right back into that spineless, groveling act. "I really was just dropping something off, babe. Don't misunderstand."
"To make it up to you, I cooked this myself. You must be hungry. Try it."
He set a container of lamb stew in front of me.
Under his eager, expectant gaze, I drank it. Spoonful by spoonful, until it was gone.
But within moments, the room began to tilt. My thoughts blurred at the edges.
Five minutes later, I couldn't hold on any longer.
Everything went black, and I collapsed.
Beside me, Zachery let out a laugh he couldn't contain.
"Playing games with me, Ellie? Not so clever now, are you?"
"You're smart—I'll give you that. You caught on to our plan. But you're still not smart enough."
He raised his hand and slapped me across the face.
"I put five times the dose in that stew. Go ahead and die."
When I still didn't stir, the grin on his face deepened, satisfaction spreading across every feature.
Then he pulled out his phone and typed a message to Gertrude, his fingers quick with excitement:
"Get to the hospital. She's already passed out, and this time she's not waking up!"
"We'll transfer the money from her phone first. I know her bank card PIN. We can deal with the rest of her assets later!"
Before long, Gertrude came rushing in.
A greedy smile spread across her face. "Zachery, she's really gone? This is perfect! Let's move fast before something goes wrong!"
"What's there to worry about?" Zachery's voice dripped with smugness. "I'm her legal husband. Her only next of kin. I say her condition deteriorated and she passed away. Who's going to question that? The cops won't find a thing."
The two of them crowded around the hospital bed, buzzing with excitement.
Zachery reached for my phone.
Gertrude rubbed her hands together, her eyes gleaming as she looked me over, as if she could already see the fortune within her grasp.
They were so drunk on the thrill of getting everything they wanted that they'd lost all sense of their surroundings.
Bang! The door to the hospital room flew open, kicked in from the outside.
The explosive sound made Zachery and Gertrude whip around.
My best friend Vivian stormed in with several uniformed officers at her back, every one of them radiating authority.
She held up a body camera and barked, "Freeze! You're both under arrest!"
