The moment my taunting words left my lips, an officer standing nearby grabbed my arm and twisted it behind my back with brutal precision. Pain lanced through my shoulder, sharp and overwhelming, forcing a gasp from my throat. My knees buckled slightly, but I forced myself to remain upright, swallowing the cry that threatened to escape.
“We’ve already let you meet your brother,” the officer growled, his breath hot and furious against my ear. “Now tell us your motive!”
The strain on my arm was unbearable, my pulse pounding in my ears like a drum. Even so, I managed a slow, deliberate shake of my head, my voice dripping with mock sweetness. “I’ll only speak to David,” I murmured, my tone laced with venom. “After all, he is my most beloved brother....”
My calm defiance was a dagger to the officers’ patience. I felt their frustration in the way the officer’s grip tightened, his knuckles whitening. But I knew I had the upper hand and they hated it. This case had become a spectacle and the public demanded swift answers. They had no time to waste.
After a tense deliberation, one officer left to fetch a doctor, hoping to force David awake. But fate seemed to favor my wicked desires; before the officer returned, David’s eyelids fluttered and his glassy eyes slowly opened.
A sinister smile tugged at my lips. I raised my hand, wiggling my fingers in a mocking wave through the glass window. The motion was slow, deliberate. A gesture meant only for him.
But I had barely moved twice before the officers yanked me into the room.
***
The sterile room, permeated by a faint antiseptic scent, was punctuated by the rhythmic beeping of machines. Their glowing displays cast an eerie green light across the walls. The sight of David, pale and vulnerable on the hospital bed, elicited a perverse sense of satisfaction within me.
He turned his head at the sound of the door opening, his hollow gaze locking onto mine. Recognition sparked, quickly replaced by a murderous glare that burned hotter than any words he could summon.
"You lunatic!" David snarled, summoning a surge of strength and attempting to lunge at me. But his body betrayed him. He collapsed to the floor before he could reach me.
“Bianca, I’ll kill you! I’ll kill you with my own hands! Tom and Sarah were good to you! Anne—” His voice broke and for a fleeting moment, anguish overtook his anger. “Anne loved you like her own sister. How could you do this to them?”
His words struck like shards of glass, but they only fanned the flames inside me. Laughter erupted from my lips, wild and uncontrollable, spilling into the room with a manic edge. Tears blurred my vision, hot streams carving paths down my cheeks, but the laughter didn’t stop.
“David,” I choked out between gasps, my voice trembling with raw emotion. “Do you think you have the right to question me? You—the one who caused all of this?” I took a step forward and then another, each one deliberate, measured.
