Oliver's gaze snapped back to me, darkening with renewed anger. I didn't flinch. Not a single flicker of emotion crossed my face. I reached into my pocket, pulled out my phone, and held the screen up where they could both see it.
The surveillance footage played in crystal clarity.
"Mamie Winfield. The cameras caught everything. You slipping something into my food, again and again. You're the reason my body was full of toxins. You're the reason I've been dizzy, exhausted, and falling apart."
Oliver stared at the screen, stunned into silence.
In the footage, Mamie was snapping tablets from a blister pack and dropping them one by one into my gourmet tonic soup.
"Worthless bitch. You think you can steal Oliver from me? Go ahead and die."
The living room went deathly still. The only sound was Mamie's venomous voice hissing from the surveillance feed.
Mamie's composure shattered. She let out a shrill, panicked scream.
"Bernice, you're despicable! When did you install cameras? You had no right to spy on me!"
I let out a cold laugh and slapped her across the face so hard the crack echoed off the walls.
"You're a shameless tramp who threw herself into another woman's husband's bed. You think you're worth spying on?"
"This is my house. I don't need your permission to put up a camera."
Mamie's body swayed sideways, and she collapsed against the coffee table. Glass exploded across the living room floor with an ear-splitting crash.
She pressed her palms into the shards, blood welling between her fingers, and turned those pitiful, doe-like eyes toward Oliver.
"Oliver, it's not what it looks like. I only did it because I love you so much. I just wanted us to be together openly..."
"Shut your mouth!"
Oliver stood frozen, his gaze locked on my stomach. A long, terrible silence passed before his eyes drifted to the lab report.
Then he seized Mamie by the collar and hauled her up to his face.
"You poisonous bitch. I went out of my way to help you with your so-called treatment, and you repaid me by poisoning my wife and killing my child? Do you even have a soul?"
His hand closed around her throat.
"Why, Mamie? Why would you do this to me?"
"You were the one who abandoned me to go study abroad. I finally found someone who genuinely loved me, and you couldn't stand it. You had to destroy everything."
Oliver's eyes were bloodshot, veins bulging along his forearms. As his grip tightened, Mamie's eyes rolled back. Her tongue jutted out, and her body convulsed with violent, choking coughs.
Seconds later, her face turned a mottled purple. Tears streamed from the corners of her eyes as she wheezed out a desperate plea.
"Oliver... I... I love you... truly... please..."
The instant her eyes fluttered shut and her body went limp, Oliver released her. He flung her away like something rotten, and she crumpled to the floor. He collapsed onto the sofa, all the fury draining out of him, replaced by something raw and wretched.
"Bernice, I'm sorry. I swear I didn't know."
