The Ultimate Chance-Chapter 75

"Our mother committed suicide. You know this, right?" He reminded her, thinking she had decided to make a joke out of something that wasn’t funny.

She smiled mysteriously. "So it is said."

"What do you mean?"

She crossed her arms and leaned against the wall for support, feeling too tired to deal with this but having no choice. "All we got is the one-sided story of a man who hated his wife to the core. It could be true that Amelia knew the consequences of her actions and decided to take her own life to avoid having to face them.

You know, prison is said to be worse than hell. Not like I know of anyone who has been to both prison and hell and made the comparison, but it is definitely something she would be scared of."

"But?"

"But what if someone knew this about her and decided to use it to make her take the fall for this?" She speculated.

"Do you think that’s possible?" He wondered. "Who would have the mind to do that? Commit a crime, pin it on someone—his wife—and then kill her and stage it as a suicide, and then let her take the fall for the crime since there will be no way to ask her after she is dead? I mean, I know dead mean tell no tales but it would take a psychopath to think up such an elaborate scheme."

"And our father is an elaborate schemer. He has both the motive and the opportunity to do such a thing. Besides, he hated mother once he found out what she had done."

He didn’t seem to believe her.

"You know what? We should hire a homicide detective and see what they have to say about this. If they think it is really a suicide, I will stop thinking about it." He didn’t react immediately so she thought he was dismissing her thoughts. "Fine. I will get closer to him and find out whether he has any secrets."

"You cannot. This man was ready to kill you once he learnt you were playing with his mind to find out about the company’s financial records. If he found out you were investigating him for murdering his wife, do you think he would hesitate to kill you?"

"Relax." She scoffed. He was not able to stop her before she sauntered away to return to Bryce who was yet to leave.

"She will be the death of me." He raked his hand through his hair helplessly. Was it possible for Avery to ever do anything without putting her life in danger?

...

"You are back." Bryce was surprised when he saw her. He darted his eyes in the direction she had come from, probably believing someone had talked her into coming back to him. Luckily, Gabe managed to slip behind a wall in time. She let out a sigh of relief in secret when he acted fast.

"I just thought about our conversation." She blinked. "I understand how you felt. One moment, I was the little princess you loved so much. The next, there was a possibility that I wasn’t your daughter." She studied his expression, subtly putting out the flame she had just kindled. "I can understand, father. If I were in your shoes, I would no longer want to be a loving father. As long as I did my duty, that would be okay. I wouldn’t go all the way and love the child I was no longer so sure about."

"It’s got nothing to do with that. Your mother was just..." He stopped himself. "You knew her. She could be difficult sometimes. Even then, she was my wife and I loved her very much."

She nodded. He must have known she was trying to trap him using his words and stopped himself in time before he said something that could be used against him.

That was okay. Although she had not gained much, it was worth a shot. At least she was now certain that Bryce was hiding something and it had a lot to do with Amelia’s death.

____

Athough she had already found out that Bryce was hiding a secret that could very well be motive for a staged murder, she found a detective to help her gather whatever evidence could be found.

"You want your father to go to prison for murdering your mother, who you couldn’t have cared least about?" Asked Mina, who had been the one to contact the detective.

"Basically, yes." She couldn’t explain her urge. "If he killed my mother, it means he wanted to hide his crime—attempting to kill my son. That’s all I care about. I don’t care what happens to Amelia."

Mina watched from a distance as the crime scene was scouted. They were both outside Bryce’s home, and the man was trying to explain to the detective’s assistants that his wife was distressed for several days before her demise and was likely to have considered suicide.

"He is trying to prove something most families don’t want to be the case." Mina lowered her voice to speak.

Listening to her father, Avery agreed. "If my wife was found dead with a spilled bottle of pills beside her head, I would be more willing to believe someone shoved them down her throat and staged it as suicide than that she wanted to die. Besides, how could a few days of distress make anyone consider death? You’d have to have been depressed for a while or had something really huge bugging you."

"You’re starting to sound like Mabella." Mina laughed, moments before she caught a clear view of the detective. "Heavens, have you ever seen fire on heels? That guy is hot!"

"Mina," she rubbed her forehead. "That’s a detective and he is at work. This is a crime scene."

"That doesn’t make him any less hot." She exaggeratedly fanned her neck using her hand. The detective walked over to them and before he could say a word, Mina flashed a smile. "What’s up, Sherlock? Found a lead yet?"

"Ignore her." Avery smiled awkwardly. "Did you find anything?"

As though he was glad to be asked about work, he nodded. "I know I’m only supposed to tell you what I found out at the end of the investigation but I’m letting you know so you take care. The lab results just came out and Amelia’s wrist was slit post mortem. This means even if she had committed suicide, she wouldn’t have done so by slitting her wrist."

Her lips parted but she couldn’t say a word for a while. She had expected it but... "Wow, okay."

"The results also confirmed that if she had held that blade for as long as she’d been in the tub, unconscious, it would have fallen out. The fact that it was found in her hand means someone put it there not long before Amelia was found dead. An hour, at most."

She couldn’t understand. "But if she was already dead and it looked like suicide, why would the killer need to return the blade in her hand? Wasn’t it enough if it dropped out of her hand like you said it should?"

"That’s what made everything fall into place. The killer murdered her, left the scene, thought about the murder weapon—the blade—and remembered it should be found in Amelia’s hand, brought it back to the scene and worked out the perfect time when her body could be found. This has to be someone with enough access to Amelia’s room. Do you know of anyone who would want to hurt Amelia?"

’I would.’ She thought, but she would never do that kind of heartless thing. She was still speechless that a living person with a beating heart would concoct that kind of scene. How long did they take to come up with it?

"If you know anything, you need to let us know." Insisted the detective.

"I know nothing. Mother was lovely. Everyone loved her." She spoke when she heard footsteps behind her. When Bryce stood beside her to listen to the detective, she quickly deflected. "It was false alarm. Everything about mother’s case matches a suicide. I think we were just being paranoid."

It took the man a while to understand why she was lying in her father’s presence but when he did, he played along. "It’s normal to think that way. You are still in denial that your mother would do such a selfish thing."

"I would like to speak to Miss Vaillant and recommend a good shrink I know. You need it." He lied to make Bryce leave, and when he did, he asked, "Do you suspect him?"

"It’s why I called for this investigation." She admitted.

"Everything about him does match the culprit’s profile." It was alarming but he had probably seen worse because he didn’t react the way she thought he would.

"Oh, Sherlock." Mina came over with her radiant smile. "There are parts of my room I would like you to investigate."

Avery face palmed. Her friend had no control when she met handsome men.

"My name is Dwayne." The detective corrected her.

"Even better."

"It’s not even been a day but you are flirting around and asking detectives into your room?" The upset voice that spoke from behind was Gabe’s, and Mina broke into a smile when she heard his words.

"I didn’t know I was supposed to stay away from other men." She expressed her confusion. "All you did was smile at me."

"Now you know you should stay the fuck away from them. Especially detectives." He wrapped his arm around her waist. She looked like she was going to melt away in happiness.

Meanwhile, Dwayne looked disappointed while Avery was sympathetic.

Twenty million men in Olphire and her eyes chose to see the scummiest playboy of them all. Poor Mina.