“I asked you a question,” Liam demanded.
She opened her mouth, but only a sob came out. “Liam, I didn’t know it was going to go this far.”
Those words were enough to destroy what little he still wanted to believe. “What didn’t you know?” he asked. “That my wife was sick? That someone was poisoning her? That you humiliated her until she felt alone in her own home?”
Gwen covered her face. “I just wanted to help you.”
Liam let out a dry, joyless laugh. “Help me?”
“I saw how you worked, how tired you were when you arrived, and how she made secret transfers,” Gwen cried. “Paige told me that Nora was dangerous, and that she had already destroyed a family before. She told me there was a way to scare her, to weaken her a little so that she would confess.”
Liam felt nauseous. “Weaken her?”
Gwen cried loudly. “She swore to me it wasn’t fatal. She said it would only make her dizzy and tired, and that’s how you’d open your eyes. I didn’t know about the sedative. I didn’t know Nora was going to try…”
She didn’t finish the sentence. Liam thought of Nora locked on the balcony, hugging her shoulders against the cold, believing her husband saw her as a thief.
He thought of the crumpled note she clutched in her hand. He had read it in the hospital.
“Forgive me. My mom needs surgery. I didn’t mean to worry you. I’m not a bad wife. I just didn’t know how to tell you I’m scared.”
Liam slumped down in a chair. “The money was for her mother,” he said, his voice breaking. “Mrs. Hazel has a tumor. Nora was saving up for the operation because she didn’t want to burden me with any more problems. And you pointed her out like she was a thief.”
Gwen lifted her face, her eyes swollen. “I did not know.”
“Because you never asked,” Liam replied. “Just like me.”
The silence was worse than any scream. Owen arrived shortly after with two officers, and Gwen was taken in for questioning. She was not handcuffed, but she had the look of someone who had just understood that a poorly chosen word can turn into tragedy.
That same afternoon, the police arrested Paige Brewer at the factory where she worked. In her apartment, they found a hidden jar, deleted messages, and a notebook with dates.
