“No need,” I said quickly. “Tom fixed it for free. Long-time customer.”
“Are you sure?” Emily asked, her brow furrowing for just a moment. “I don’t want to trouble anyone.”
“It’s fine,” I said, forcing a smile. “You’re welcome.”
She hesitated for a moment, then looked down at the phone. “Michael’s going to be home tomorrow night. He misses you both.”
“Tell him to stop by,” I said. “We haven’t seen him in two weeks.”
“Of course,” Emily said. “He’ll be so happy to hear that.” She smiled and turned to leave.
But as the door closed behind her, I couldn’t shake the feeling that she was hiding something. She had been too eager to get the phone back. And her behavior was far too calm.
I told Robert about the conversation, and we both agreed that things were escalating. Emily was planning something, and we needed to stay one step ahead of her.
The next morning, I went to the doctor’s office to see Dr. Parker. Michael had convinced him that I was showing signs of dementia, but I knew I wasn’t. I had to get him to document my mental competence. When I arrived, Dr. Parker seemed surprised to see me.
“Susan, I thought Michael was taking care of this for you,” he said.
“He was,” I replied. “But I wanted to come in myself. I want to make sure everything’s documented properly.”
As Dr. Parker examined me, I could tell something wasn’t right. When I asked for a copy of my records, he hesitated but eventually agreed. And when I saw the notes, I knew my worst fears had come true. The records showed signs of cognitive decline that I hadn’t experienced.
But that wasn’t the worst part.
When I returned home, I found that Michael had manipulated the doctor to falsify my records. He had used his power of attorney to gain access to our accounts and even opened a new life insurance policy in my name for $1.5 million.
I was sick to my stomach. They had planned everything—our deaths, the insurance money, the house. They were ready to leave us to die so they could live a life of luxury.
We had to act fast.
But things were about to take a darker turn. I would never have guessed that the woman I had trusted—Emily—was the true mastermind behind it all. What started as a plan for money quickly turned into a deadly conspiracy to erase us both.
As the pieces of the puzzle fell into place, I realized just how far they were willing to go to get what they wanted.
And this was just the beginning.
As I stood in the living room, still holding the doctor’s falsified medical records, the weight of what Michael and Emily had done crashed over me like a wave. The truth was worse than anything I could have imagined. It wasn’t just betrayal—it was a calculated, cold-blooded plan to end our lives for money. They had both been living a lie, pretending to care for us while plotting our deaths.
I turned to Robert, whose face was pale with shock. “They’re going to kill us, Robert. They were going to make it look like an accident, but they wanted us dead all along.”
Robert squeezed his eyes shut, taking a deep breath. His hands were trembling. “How did we miss this, Susan? How could we not see it?”
I didn’t have the answer. How could we have known? Michael had always seemed so caring, so involved. Emily, too, had been the perfect daughter-in-law, professional, graceful, and sweet. But behind closed doors, they had been planning our murder.
“It’s not your fault,” I said, though my own voice quivered. “We trusted them, and they used that trust against us. But now we have to stop them. We can’t let them get away with this.”
Robert nodded, his expression hardening. “What do we do now?”
I thought for a moment. The police needed proof, something concrete they could use to arrest them. The text messages Tom had uncovered were crucial evidence, but we needed more. We needed to catch them in the act.
“The police won’t believe us unless we have undeniable evidence,” I said. “We need to set a trap.”
The plan was set. We had already secured our finances by canceling our cards and changing all our passwords. We had already gathered enough proof that Michael and Emily were behind this, but now we needed to catch them in the act. I called Laura, our lawyer, who agreed to help us devise a strategy to gather the final pieces of evidence.
Before anything else could be done, though, we had to keep the appearance of normalcy. We needed to act as if everything was fine so that Michael and Emily wouldn’t get suspicious. They had to believe that we were oblivious to their plan.
Later that evening, Michael called. The sound of his voice sent a chill down my spine.
“Hi, Mom. It’s Michael,” he said casually. “How’s everything going? Emily and I were thinking of coming over for dinner tonight.”
The last thing I wanted was to sit down with him and Emily, knowing they had planned to kill us. But we couldn’t let them know we were onto them. I forced a smile, even though I felt my heart racing in my chest.
“That sounds nice,” I said, trying to keep my voice steady. “We’d love to have you both over. What time will you be here?”
“We’ll be there around 7:00 p.m.,” Michael said. “We can’t wait to see you guys. We’ve missed you.”
“Of course,” I said, trying not to let my unease show. “I’ll make your favorite lasagna.”
“Perfect. See you then,” he replied before hanging up.
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