Chapter 5 - The Midnight Confession
Midnight arrived with a low rumble of thunder.
The nurse had gone to the kitchen to prepare her tea,
leaving me alone in the dark.
The door opened,
and David slipped in,
the smell of rain clinging to his coat.
He didn't turn on the light.
He sat in the chair Jessica had occupied,
his face shadowed and grim.
"It won't be long now,
will it?"
he asked the darkness.
He wasn't talking to me;
he was talking to himself.
"The doctor said the heart is starting to struggle. The kidneys are next."
He leaned forward,
his elbows on his knees,
staring at the floor.
"I didn't mean for it to go on this long,
Eliza. I thought you would be gone by Christmas."
He let out a sigh that sounded more like a groan.
"Keeping up the act is exhausting. Pretending to care,
pretending to pray for a miracle."
"Jessica is getting impatient. She wants the house. She wants the life we talked about."
He looked up at me,
his eyes cold and empty.
"You were always so focused on your buildings. You didn't realize that a marriage needs a foundation too."
"Ours was built on your money and my patience. And my patience ran out a long time ago."
He stood up and walked to the bed,
looking down at me like a scientist examining a specimen.
"I've already moved the last of the liquid assets. Mr. Sterling thinks I'm a grieving husband,
so he isn't looking too closely."
"By the time you're in the ground,
the firm will be mine,
the accounts will be mine,
and you will just be a memory."
He reached out and adjusted the flow of my IV drip,
his hand lingering on the plastic tubing.
"Maybe a little more of the sedative tonight,"
he whispered.
"You look like you need the rest."
He turned the dial,
increasing the dosage of the medication that kept me in a half-conscious state.
It was an act of murder,
slow and silent.
He didn't know that my body had built up a tolerance to the sedative,
or that I had already instructed Elena to check the dials every hour.
He was trying to kill me,
but he was only confirming his own fate.
As the medication began to cloud my mind,
I used my last bit of strength to look at the monitor.
The camera was recording.
The sensor was active.
Every word of his confession,
every movement toward the IV,
was being uploaded to the cloud.
He thought he was being careful,
but he was the most reckless man I had ever known.
He leaned down and kissed my forehead,
a gesture of finality.
"Goodbye,
Eliza. Thank you for the house."
He walked out,
closing the door with a soft click.
The room began to spin as the drugs took hold,
but I held onto the image of the blinking cursor.
It was my lighthouse in the storm.
I had built skyscrapers that could withstand earthquakes.
I had designed bridges that spanned miles of open water.
And now,
I had built a trap that would swallow a man whole.
I drifted into a dark,
dreamless sleep,
knowing that when I woke up,
it would be for the last time.
May you like
And when I finally closed my eyes for good,
David’s nightmare would just be beginning.
