Second Life Starts at My Own Murder Scene Chapter 08

Second Life Starts at My Own Murder Scene Chapter 08

The police arrived quickly.

The hotel manager had heard everything from outside the room and had already broken out in a cold sweat. He’d

alerted hotel security in advance and had the area sealed off.

The moment the uniformed officers stepped into the room and saw the silver needle on the floor, along with the recorded call on the phone, they didn’t waste a single word.

Cold handcuffs snapped shut around Lydia’s wrists.

At the same time, Wanda–still downstairs in the ballroom, eating, drinking, and waiting for good news–was slammed

facedown onto the banquet table by two officers.

When they dragged her away, she still had no idea what had happened and kept shouting that she was innocent.

It wasn’t until she saw Lydia in the squad car too, handcuffed and ashen–faced, that all the strength drained out of her.

There were witnesses.

There was physical evidence.

That same afternoon, our whole family went down to the precinct.

Mom held me so tightly she never loosened her grip for even a second.

She sat with me in the observation room, and through the one–way glass, I watched my aunt–the one who had once

been so haughty and decked out in jewelry–sitting in the interview room with her hair in disarray, looking like a

complete madwoman.

One of the detectives held up the silver needle and demanded sharply, “Lydia, the victim is your own niece. She’s barely a

month old. How could you bring yourself to do something this vicious?”

But Lydia wasn’t frightened by the questioning.

If anything. it was like someone had tripped a switch inside her.

She suddenly let out a crazed, icy laugh.

The sound echoed through the empty interview room and made my skin crawl.

“My own niece? That’s exactly why I had to destroy her!”

Lydia ground her teeth together, her eyes warped with hatred.

“Why? Tell me why!”

“My brother and I were born to the same mother! We have the same blood running through our veins!

“So why does Daniel Bennett get to have a successful carcer, a beautiful wife, and a healthy, chubby baby girl without a

single problem?”

“And what about me?!”

She slammed her fists against the armrest of the interview chair, her voice turning sharp and shrill.

“I’ve seen doctor after doctor because my tubes were blocked! Do you know how many awful medications I swallowed?

How many fertility shots I had jabbed into my stomach?”

“At my in–laws‘ house, that old witch used to jab a finger in my face and call me barren! My husband got colder and

colder toward me, and he even started seeing other women!”

“My life was hell!”

“And what did that dear brother of mine do? He went and threw that huge one–month celebration!”

“He knew I couldn’t have children, and he still insisted on dragging me there to watch his perfect little family of three!”

“He was showing off! He was twisting the knife in my heart!”

The more Lydia talked, the more worked up she became, until her whole face twisted out of shape.

“I couldn’t accept it! I couldn’t stand it!”

“I couldn’t bear seeing them happy!”

“I wanted him to know what it felt like to live in hell!”

“All I had to do was drive that needle into the little bastard’s head, and she’d turn into a drooling idiot!”

Then my brother would have to pour every dollar he had and every ounce of his energy into treating that idiot!”

“He’d spend every day drowning in pain and despair!”

“And then he’d never again have the right to look down on me with those pitying, superior eyes! Hahaha!”

Lydia’s laughter was as shrill and ugly as a night bird’s cry.

In the observation room, Dad’s fists were clenched so hard his knuckles had gone white, and his eyes were full of grief and fury.

He had never imagined that all the care and protection he had shown his sister over the years would be twisted in her mind into nothing but bragging and condescension.

Jealousy, like a venomous snake, had eaten through Lydia’s heart completely.

And in the other interview room, Wanda’s statement stripped away the last of Lydia’s mask

“Detective, I’m innocent! Lydia forced me into this!”

Wanda cried with snot and tears all over her face. “She came to me first!”

“She told me that if I helped her find some folk remedy that could leave a baby mentally impaired, and if I covered for

her at the one–month celebration, she’d get my son promoted to department manager!”

“I bought that remedy from some backwoods witch in the next town over, and I’m the one who got the silver needle

too!”

Trying to save her own skin, Wanda spilled everything Lydia had ever said, the words pouring out of her like beans from

a split sack.

“Lydia had been planning this for a long time!”

“She trashed her sister–in–law and that baby girl in front of me more times than I can count!”

“She said her sister–in–law was a shameless tramp, and the baby girl she’d had was nothing but a useless burden!”

“She even said that once that little bastard turned brain–damaged, she was going to go over to her brother’s house every single day to laugh at them and shove a few filthy pity dollars at them just to humiliate them!”

The moment those words were spoken, the pressure in the observation room dropped to a suffocating level.

Grandpa couldn’t take it anymore.

He covered his face with both hands, and in that moment he seemed to age ten years. His back bowed deeply.

“Daniel… Megan…”

He turned toward my parents and gave them a deep, trembling bow, tears streaming down his face.

I failed you both.”

“I didn’t raise Lydia right. I raised a vicious ingrate who repaid kindness with betrayal, and she nearly cost Evie her life!”

“Don’t worry.”

He gritted his teeth, every word soaked in pain. “From this day on, I’ll act like I never had that daughter.”

Tomorrow, I’ll put out a public notice cutting all ties with her.”

“Whether she lives or dies, whether she goes to prison or gets the death penalty, I, Robert Bennett, will never concern

myself with her again!”

Dad’s eyes reddened. He stepped forward quickly and caught Grandpa before he could collapse.

Mom came over too and placed me into Dad’s broad arms.

The four of us held one another tightly.

At that moment, pressed against Dad’s warm chest and listening to the steady strength of his heartbeat. I let out a long

breath.

At last, the nightmare from my last life was truly over.

Our family was finally safe.