Chapter 36 - The Sister's Confession
"You foolish, arrogant girl," Clara hissed, her voice vibrating with genuine rage as the floor beneath us shook. "You just flooded the entire northern fault line! Forty million dollars of refined gold bullion is being swept into an unrecoverable underground cavern!"
"It was never your gold, Clara!" I shouted back, stepping onto the mahogany deck of the boat, keeping the Walther PPK trained steadily on her chest. "It was Silas’s blood money. He stole it from the union pension funds and hid it in the reservoir! Helen spent her whole life trying to keep this family from drowning in its own greed!"
"Helen was a hypocrite!" Clara screamed, stepping closer to the railing, her face twisting into an ugly mask of hatred. "Helen didn't protect this lake to honor our father! She murdered him! Right here! On this very dock!"
The words struck like a physical blow. Sarah Vance, her gun still pointed at Clara’s remaining guard, froze.
"She lied to you, Riley," Clara laughed hysterically over the deafening rush of the draining water. "Silas didn't die in a car wreck in 1965. Helen drugged his bourbon, tied him to the helm of his fishing boat, and scuttled it right over the trench! She took the land, she took the mills, and she framed me for the offshore embezzlement so I would have to run for my life!"
Evelyn dropped to her knees on the gantry, clutching her Bible, her eyes wild with terror. "No... no... Mother wouldn't... Mother was a deaconess... she built the sanctuary..."
"Shut up, you pious idiot!" Clara snapped, turning her weapon directly toward Evelyn's face. "You were always useless, Evelyn! A weak, mewling cow who thought she could buy salvation with collection plates! Your husband was a coward, your daughter is a menace, and you are nothing but a signature on an asset transfer!"
Clara pulled the hammer back on the revolver.
"Clara, no!" I screamed.
Evelyn looked up into the barrel of the gun held by the woman she had idolized as her savior. For forty years, Evelyn had built her entire identity on a mountain of self-righteous deceit, believing she was the golden child of the Vance dynasty. And in one second, the illusion shattered into dust.
"God forgive me," Evelyn whispered.
May you like
With a sudden, desperate lunge, Evelyn didn't run away. She threw her entire weight straight into Clara’s knees.
***
