Chapter 7 - The Fractured Mirror of Memory
Andrew stared at the telephone,
his jaw tightening.
“Tell them I have nothing to say to her,”
Andrew said coldly.
“Wait,”
Evelyn interrupted,
placing a gentle hand on his forearm.
“Let me speak to her,
Andrew.”
Andrew turned to her,
shocked.
“No,
Evelyn,
absolutely not!
She tried to destroy your life!
She belongs in a prison cell!”
“She knows something about the fire,”
Evelyn said quietly,
her voice steady despite the lingering trauma.
“There are still blank spaces in my memory about that night.
I need to look her in the eye and close this chapter forever.”
Andrew searched her face,
seeing the strength and determination that had made him fall in love with her years ago.
Reluctantly,
he nodded.
An hour later,
Andrew and Evelyn arrived at the police precinct downtown.
The interrogation room was cold and stark,
lit by a single overhead fluorescent light.
Victoria sat across the metal table,
handcuffed,
her hair disheveled and her silk dress rumpled.
When the door opened and Evelyn walked in,
Victoria let out a bitter,
mocking laugh.
“Look at you,”
Victoria sneered,
her eyes wild.
“Back from the dead to play the perfect lady again.”
Evelyn sat down across from her,
her posture graceful and composed.
“Why did you do it,
Victoria?”
Evelyn asked quietly.
“We were like sisters.”
Victoria slammed her handcuffed hands onto the table,
the metal rattling violently against the steel surface.
“Sisters?”
Victoria yelled,
her voice ringing against the bare walls.
“You had everything!
The fortune,
the handsome husband,
the perfect children!
My father died in shame because your family’s company bought us out!
I deserved your life!”
“So you set the fire?”
Andrew demanded from the corner of the room,
his voice dangerously quiet.
Victoria looked at Andrew,
a crazed smile playing on her lips.
“I set the fire,”
she admitted freely,
knowing her conviction was already guaranteed.
“I locked her in the study,
poured the gasoline,
and threw the match.
But that foolish handyman found her before the flames consumed her completely.
I had to pay him off,
ship her to that country clinic,
and keep her drugged so she would never remember!”
Evelyn listened,
every piece of the puzzle falling into place.
The lingering guilt she had carried for three years vanished,
replaced by a calm,
unshakable truth.
“You took three years of my life,
Victoria,”
Evelyn said softly,
standing up from the table.
“But you failed to take my family,
my mind,
or my soul.
May you like
You will spend the rest of your life in a dark cell,
remembering that you lost.”
