Chapter 7 - MY WIFE CAME TO CELEBRATE TOO EARLY
Victoria was arrested in the valet circle beneath the hospital awning while trying to leave in one of my town cars.
Nora later told me it was almost anticlimactic. No screaming. No public meltdown. Just surprise, followed by immediate outrage that anyone had dared lay a hand on her.
She asked for a lawyer before they even closed the cruiser door.
I thought I would feel triumphant.
Instead, I felt tired.
Arresting my wife did not unpoison my body. It did not return four years of trust. It did not explain how many nights she had kissed me with a murder already in motion.
But it did change the company around me.
Hospital staff stopped looking at me with pity and started looking at my chart like it might explode. Reporters circled downstairs. The board called Daniel every hour. My estranged younger brother, Caleb, whom I had not seen in six years, even sent flowers with a note that read:
Sorry I disappeared. Also, don’t die before I can say I told you she was dangerous.
Classic Caleb.
By evening, Victoria’s attorney requested a monitored conversation with me. Daniel strongly advised against it. I agreed anyway—with Nora present and everything recorded.
Victoria appeared on the screen from an interview room at Area Central, immaculate even in custody. She wore the same cream blouse she’d had on the first night and looked more insulted than frightened.
“Jonathan,” she said, “you know me better than this.”
I almost smiled.
“Apparently I didn’t know you at all.”
Her eyes sharpened. “Raymond convinced me the supplements would only weaken you enough to make you slow down. He said you were already dying.”
“Did you tell me you’d been poisoning me for months?”
Her lips parted slightly. Then closed.
“That wasn’t a no,” Daniel said.
She ignored him.
“Raymond said once you stepped back, things would shift. I was supposed to have security. Stability.”
“You told me you and Raymond had chosen a house in Malibu.”
Her voice went flat. “Because that was the future I was promised.”
There it was.
Not remorse.
Disappointment that the promise had collapsed.
Then she leaned closer to the camera.
“But if you think Raymond was ever doing this for me, you’re a fool.”
That got everyone’s attention.
“What does that mean?” Nora asked.
Victoria laughed bitterly. “It means I may be under arrest, Detective, but I’m not the one who built the full plan.”
Daniel’s eyes narrowed. “Then who did?”
She sat back.
“Talk to Raymond about the life insurance rider. And ask him why Dr. Whitmore needed hospital access after Jonathan was already admitted.”
She requested counsel again and cut the interview.
When the screen went dark, I looked at Nora.
“She’s buying leverage.”
May you like
“Maybe,” Nora said. “Or maybe she just realized she was never the favorite conspirator.”
The next warrant went out before midnight.
