CHAPTER 75
ROBERT’S POV
~ “This woman here is not Lily,” I cut her off. ~
“Excuse me?…” My mum leaned forward, her features wrinkling like I had said something abominable. “What did you just say?”
“She’s not Lily,” I repeated, making it clearer this time so they could hear me better. “She’s just some random lookalike that was hired to kill Grandpa.”
The level of shock that flew through their faces was unlike any I had ever seen before. Mum and Ginny stared at me like I was crazy, as though I had lost it entirely. Martin gazed at me with an amusingly shocking expression while Dad scoffed in disbelief.
Mum approached me almost reflexively, her expression suddenly sympathetic as she held my cheeks as if to assess my features and check if I was alright. “Is everything okay? What’s wrong my son? Have you been drinking or something?”
“No…” I grimaced.
“Then why are you saying something like that? Everyone here knows too well she is the same Lily from nine years ago. The same person that murdered your grandpa by stabbing him twenty times in the chest and destroying his heart. Never forget that. Please don’t tell me you’re still caught up in her spell…”
“I’m not caught up in anyone’s spell,” I said, infuriated as I brought her hand down from my cheeks.
I turned my attention to Martin who was still staring at me like I was out of my mind. “Do you still have the video of that woman leaving Grandpa’s penthouse apartment after the murder?”
“Uhmm…I think…” He replied, not seeming entirely sure.
“Check, please. And if you do then let me have it.”
Setting up this gathering, I had expected their doubts. Anyone who knew Lily and hadn’t seen her in a long time would find it hard to believe this woman wasn’t her. But I was ready for this. I wasn’t leaving or wavering until I had convinced them and made my point clear.
Martin did a few scrolls and taps before handing me his phone while they all stared at me with blank expressions on their faces, wondering what it was I was trying to prove.
“I don’t know what has gotten over you but you have to stop whatever it is you’re trying to do, Robert,” My mum said in utter disapproval. “No matter what you do or show us on that phone, it won’t stop us from carrying out what we have planned out for her. She must suffer and there is no turning back on that. I know you were married to her for three years and in that time might formed some level of attachment to her but you need to understand that she was nothing but a terrible wife! All she did was try to sabotage you and kill a member of the family. If that good for nothing Scarlett hadn’t exposed her, who knew who she might have planned to kill next me, you, your father? So stop standing up for her! Stop trying to see the light in her because all that is left is darkness. A darkness that can never be redeemed…”
“Here!” I interrupted her by bringing the phones close to her face, the one on my right was Martin’s phone with a video of the lady as she was making her way out of the murder scene, paused and zoomed in so her face could be seen clearly. The one on my left was a smiley portrait photo of Lily. She looked so cute in that photo. I didn’t even realize I still had it on my phone after all these years.
“Take a good look at these two photos and compare them carefully,” I said, watching as they hesitantly gathered around the phone screens, their faces filled with curiosity as they tried to understand the direction I was heading with this.
“This woman is heavily clothed with the same clothes Lily often wears to hide her identity and make us believe it was Lily while in reality, it wasn’t,” I explained with a serious expression. “But looking closely at the small bit of hair that is dangling from the scarf, you could see it’s black brown and short but Lily’s is thick black and long…”
“Oh my goodness,” Martin interrupted me with a gasp. He switched glances from the woman tied and crumpled on the floor and back to the screen, and then it dawned on him. “You’re right, Robert. She’s not Lily. I’m just seeing this clearly now.”
I expected him to be the first to notice because he’d been close to Lily ever since we were teenagers and in high school. Even when Lily and I were married, I was worried she spent too much time with him and might cheat on me with him which made me somewhat jealous. As a result, I had to tell her to keep her distance from him. I envied the bond they shared.
“Exactly, we were so caught with Grandpa’s death and believed Scarlett right away we didn’t have time to check the video properly. She has the same slender figure as Lily and in addition to the clothing and accessories was able to fool us into believing Lily was responsible for Grandpa’s murder.”
“I don’t understand…how is this even possible?…” My dad said with confusion and traces of doubt in his voice.
Handing the phones over to Martin who kept staring at the screens in shock, I marched over to the lady and took off her gag.
“Tell them your name and the person that sent you to kill my grandpa,” I said to her in a commanding tone with my jaw clenched.
“Please just let me go…” She pleaded helplessly in tears. “I can’t keep up with this any longer. I’m tired and hungry. Haven’t I suffered enough? I’m very sorry for what I did. If there is a way I could turn back the wheels of time and reverse my actions, then I will do it without the slightest hesitation. But since that can’t be done, I’m deeply sorry and hope you all find it in your heart to forgive me…”
“TELL THEM NOW!” I snarled, baring my incisors and canines at her like a predator about to attack as I was getting angry and impatient with her.
At this point, her pleas and tears didn’t matter to me anymore. I didn’t want to mistreat her again because she had suffered enough already and was remorseful for what she did. But if she didn’t say what I wanted to hear in the next two seconds, then I wouldn’t hesitate to make her regret her silence.
She lowered her head in shame and despair, avoiding our gazes. With her heavily tear-streaked voice, she muttered, “My name is Carina Kay and I was hired by Scarlett Milson to kill Mr. Ronald Wilson on the 28th Of May, 2015.”