Chapter 6 - Turning the Tables
"You're a monster," I said softly, looking at the woman I had trusted with my children’s lives.
Clara raised her head, her mask completely gone now, replaced by a cold, desperate malice. "You were never home, Daniel!" she spat, her voice trembling with hatred. "You thought you could just throw money at me and expect me to play saintly stepmother to your broken, needy brat kids! You owed me! Julian and I built this plan, and we deserve every cent!"
"You won't see a single cent where you're going, Clara," I said.
"You can't prove anything!" she sneered. "The offshore accounts are locked behind biometrics! The poison vial doesn't have my fingerprints! And if you arrest me, I’ll go to the tabloids! I’ll tell the world that Daniel Harper’s daughter eats dog food off the floor! I’ll ruin your firm’s stock price before the market opens tomorrow!"
I leaned back in my chair and looked at my watch.
3:45 a.m.
"You think I got rich by being stupid, Clara?" I asked gently.
I reached onto my desk and pressed the play button on my laptop.
A crystal-clear, high-definition video feed filled the screen. It showed the kitchen from three different angles, capturing every second of Clara draped in diamonds, Julian drinking my whiskey, and Maya being forced to eat dog food from the bowl. The audio was flawless, capturing every cruel word Clara had spoken.
"This house is fitted with twenty-four military-grade, encrypted security cameras," I revealed smoothly. "I installed them three years ago after Isabelle died to ensure the kids were always safe. The feeds bypass the home automation network and stream directly to a secure cloud server managed by my private security firm."
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Clara’s jaw fell open. The color drained from her face entirely, leaving her looking like a marble statue of sheer terror.
"Every word you spoke tonight, every frame of my daughter’s mistreatment, and every dollar you transferred has already been backed up to three independent servers," I said. "And at 8:00 a.m. tomorrow, the entire file will be delivered directly to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Child Protective Services special task force, and the District Attorney."
