I looked directly at Vanessa.
“We also recovered every text message you sent Claire,” I said. “Including the ones suggesting she disappear before the baby ruined Adrian’s future.”
Vanessa stumbled backward.
“That’s a lie.”
“Is it?”
I had quietly stopped the cremation process days earlier. I demanded independent toxicology testing.
While they walked into this church laughing, convinced I was too broken to fight back, specialists were finalizing reports about the poison hidden in Claire’s bloodstream.
“Walter,” I said softly.
He reached into his briefcase and removed a black flash drive.
“Ms. Bennett left final instructions,” he announced.
The silence became suffocating.
“She instructed that if Adrian Cross attended her funeral accompanied by Vanessa Hale, I was to play the recording labeled ‘Cathedral.’”
Adrian exploded.
“No!”
He lunged toward the altar.
But Detective Ryan Cole was already moving.
The struggle lasted seconds.
Adrian slammed into the lectern, knocking flowers and water across the marble floor before Detective Cole grabbed him and drove him hard onto the stone.
Handcuffs snapped shut.
Vanessa backed away in horror toward the church doors, only to find uniformed officers blocking the exit.
“Play it,” I said.
Static hissed softly through the speakers.
Then Claire’s voice filled the church.
“Adrian… please… I can’t breathe…”
The sound nearly destroyed me.
“Stop being dramatic,” Adrian’s recorded voice answered coldly. “Drink the tea.”
“It burns…”
“Vanessa got it from someone natural,” Adrian laughed on the recording. “It’ll calm you down. And if something happens to the baby? Well, everyone already thinks you’re unstable.”
Gasps echoed through the sanctuary.
“You won’t get the company,” Claire whispered weakly on the recording. “I know about the shares.”
A loud crash sounded.
Then Adrian’s furious voice:
“You stupid woman. You think you’ll live long enough to use them?”
The recording ended abruptly.
Silence swallowed the room whole.
“Adrian Cross,” Detective Cole announced, pulling him upright, “you are under arrest for the murder of Claire Cross and her unborn child.”
Adrian thrashed wildly.
