His handwriting.
Kayla's handwriting.
And the notary's office seal.
Bruce's pupils constricted.
The color drained from Kayla's face.
Her mouth opened, then closed, like someone had a hand clamped around her throat.
"Bruce," I said, "she married you for your kidney, not your money."
Luke tried to bolt while I was talking. I drove my knee into him and pinned him back into the chair.
I set the knife again, this time flat against the carotid artery in his throat.
"Go on. Move."
Luke went rigid.
Then he started to cry. A grown man, sobbing like his mother had just died.
Kayla finally broke. She lunged and grabbed my arm. "Belinda, let him go. This has nothing to do with him. It was all my idea."
I stared at her. "So you're the one who tricked my brother."
"Yes. Yes, I tricked him."
The tears spilled over. "He didn't know anything. Let him go. Take it out on me."
"Take it out on you?" I gave a short laugh. "You think you're worth it?"
Bruce stepped closer and wrapped his hand around the wrist that held the knife.
He didn't pull. He just cradled it, gently, the way he used to guide my hand when he taught me to write as a kid.
"Belinda. Listen to your brother. Put the knife down."
His voice was still that gentle.
I thought of the last life, of the last thing he said on the operating table. Not that it hurt. Just my name.
Belinda. Don't blame her.
I moved the knife off Luke's throat, but I didn't lower it.
I turned to face my brother. "You know she tricked you, and you're still protecting her?"
He was quiet for a few seconds. Then he said, "That's my business."
"Your business?"
I laughed. "Your business is getting a kidney conned out of you, then dying by her hand?"
Kayla's head jerked up, her face streaked with tears, panic in her eyes. She hadn't known I knew this much.
"How could you—" she whispered.
"How could I know?"
I walked over and tapped her cheek with the flat of the blade. "Kayla, the things you did, God knows them. And so do I."
Luke saw his chance and sprang out of the chair for the door.
I didn't chase him. I just flicked the knife after him.
It buried itself in the doorframe beside his leg, humming as it shook.
Luke crumpled to the floor, a dark stain spreading across his crotch.
Kayla shrieked and threw herself over him, cradling his head, shielding him with her body.
She looked back at me, the tears in her eyes turning to hate. "Belinda, you're insane."
"I'm insane?"
I crouched down, level with her eyes. "You tricked my brother into signing over a kidney to save this man. You dosed him with immunosuppressants so he'd die on the table. You tell me which one of us is insane."
Bruce stood a few steps away, not moving.
He was taking it in. Taking in the fact that the woman he loved had wanted him dead.
Kayla clung to Luke, shaking all over.
She looked at my brother, her lips trembling, working a few times before she managed to speak. What finally came out was, "Bruce, I'm sorry."
What good is sorry.
Last life, you said sorry, and my brother said it was fine.
This life it's your turn to say it, and I won't take it.
"Kayla." I stood and looked down at her. "I'll give you two choices. One: take your kept man and get out of this city, and never show your face in front of my brother again. Two: I hand this agreement to the police and have you charged with fraud and aggravated assault. Pick."
She held Luke as the tears fell, one after another, onto his face.
Luke was too terrified to speak now, his face ghost-white, the stain still wet.
"I'll take the first one," she said.
"Good."
