Chapter 13 - The Person on the Camera
The footage arrived that evening.
Daniel refused to watch it without Mark.
I understood why.
Whatever appeared on that screen could destroy what remained of their family.
Mark arrived after midnight.
His face looked exhausted.
“Any word on Noah?”
“No.”
He sat beside Daniel.
Nathan pressed play.
The camera angle showed Richard’s study.
The timestamp read 10:14 p.m.
Three days before Richard died.
Richard’s medication organizer sat near the desk.
A figure entered.
Jessica.
Mark stopped breathing.
“No.”
She walked toward the desk.
She opened the organizer.
Then she removed something from her pocket.
Mark stood.
“No.”
Nathan paused the footage.
Mark stared at the frozen image.
Jessica’s hand was above Richard’s pills.
I felt sick.
“Why would she do that?”
Daniel asked.
Mark shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
The footage continued.
Jessica placed tablets into two compartments.
Then Margaret entered.
Jessica jumped.
The two women argued.
There was no audio.
Margaret grabbed Jessica’s wrist.
Jessica pointed toward the medication.
Margaret opened the organizer.
She saw the pills.
And then something unexpected happened.
Margaret removed them.
Every one.
She threw them into the trash.
Daniel whispered.
“She stopped her.”
The footage continued.
Margaret pushed Jessica toward the door.
Then she picked up the organizer and left.
The next camera clip was from the following evening.
Margaret returned.
Alone.
She placed the organizer back on Richard’s desk.
Nathan paused.
Daniel stared at the screen.
“Can we see inside it?”
“No.”
The camera angle was too high.
We had no idea whether Margaret returned the dangerous pills or replaced them with safe ones.
Then came the night Richard died.
He entered the study.
He took his medication.
Three hours later, he collapsed.
Mark looked physically ill.
“Jessica tried to poison Dad.”
Nathan corrected him.
“She tampered with the medication.”
“We don’t know what she intended.”
Mark stared at him.
“She put pills in his organizer.”
Then Daniel asked the question.
“Why?”
Mark shook his head.
I remembered something.
The timing.
Richard changed his will three weeks before he died.
He had discovered the missing money.
He was preparing to remove Margaret from control.
But Jessica had her own motive.
Noah.
If Richard discovered Noah was not Mark’s biological child, Jessica believed her son could lose everything.
Margaret had protected that secret.
Perhaps Richard had learned it.
Nathan searched the recovered files.
Ten minutes later, he found a handwritten note from Richard.
JESSICA - NEED TO DISCUSS NOAH’S BIRTH RECORDS WITH MARK.
Mark read it.
His face collapsed.
Jessica knew Richard was going to tell him.
She had tried to stop him.
Then Margaret discovered what she had done.
But instead of going to police, Margaret covered it up.
The unanswered question was whether Richard eventually died because Margaret restored the pills.
Or because someone else returned later.
Then my phone buzzed.
A video message.
From Jessica.
She was crying.
May you like
Noah was beside her.
And behind them, through a window, I could see Margaret unconscious on the floor.
