“You didn’t want any of us—Rhodes, Micah, Alex, Reynard, or me—to be suspects in the murder. Reynard because he was your accomplice, and the rest of us because you had special plans for us.” I shook my head at her, lips twisting. “You didn’t want to share that inheritance, Sue. Not with me, not with your soon-to-be ex-husbands, and”—I choked, stomach heaving—“not with your daughter.
“That’s why you were waiting for Reynard to officially move out, so you two could come back and burn this place down with all of us inside,” I said. “The cops would come, peel my crispy corpse out of the ashes, compare my dental records, and reveal I was Sarang, and you—who planned to be a million miles away when Reynard started this fire—would receive the devastating news, and then step forward to play your new role of grieving daughter, sister, mother, and widow.”
I clicked my tongue. “But don’t feel too bad for Reynard having to do your dirty work, because you promised the lovesick fool that he’d ride off into the sunset with you with everyone none the wiser. You had your pick of murder-suicide motives to stop the police from investigating the arson too closely,” I said. “Either one of the guys did it because you cheated, asked for a divorce, and demanded custody of Lily,oryour psycho twin would be the one who came back for ten-year-old revenge, and killed everyone you loved.
“Either way, we’d be dead, and you wouldn’t have to share a cent of the money.”
Sue listened in stony silence. “Wow,” she rasped. “That was a scary story. Too bad that’s all that was—a story. I never did and never would hurt my mother,” Sue said loudly, speaking for the recorder. “I woke up and came downstairs for a drink of water, and found you splashing gasoline about the place like the psycho twin you are.” She beamed at me. “You need help, Sarah. Please, put down the container and let me—”
“You know what? Fuck this!” Whipping around, I flung my phone out of the kitchen and smashed it to pieces against the dining room wall. “No more lying, Sue! NO MORE LYING!”
She blew back, eyes widening at my shout like she was a little afraid of me.
“You’re not spinning your bullshit web of lies on the night you walked in here ready and willing to murder your six-year-old daughter! Your own child! You tell the truth and admit what you did or I swear”—I snatched up the frying pan she unwisely threw at me—“I swear, the next time I throw you off a cliff, you will be a battered corpse!”
“Sarah!”
“Admit it!” I charged her.
Screaming, Sue raced around the island—putting it between her and me. “Stop it!”
“Your own daughter!” Spittle flew from my mouth. “The sweetest, cutest, kindest little angel, and you were going to kill her because your new, fancy, rich life doesn’t include bandaging scabby knees or paying for nannies?! What kind of demon are you! Argh!” I roared, sending her running when I charged again. “You fucking soulless monster!”
“I’m not a monster! This is for her!” Sue ripped open the fanny pack and unearthed a vial and syringe. “See? See?!” she shrieked like those items were supposed to mean something to me. “So Nari wouldn’t feel any pain. She won’t even wake up! This isfor her!”
I gaped at her, going limp and nearly dropping the pan. “Are you fucking kidding me right now? That’s how you justified killing your own child in that sick, screaming horror show of a mind? At least she won’t feel it?!”
“It’s not my fault,” she roared, eyes bugging. “I never wanted kids. I never wanted those stupid, limp-dick wonders! They’re the ones who trickedme! They made me believe they could support me and my dreams, when the whole time, they pissed away or gave away all the money they got from that idiotic gambling app!
“I wasted ten years of mylifewith them! I gave them everything! I even gave them a frickin’ kid so they’d stop whining about me doing what I had to do to stop them ditching me when I needed them the most. They never supported me!” Sue cried, hand slashing the air. “They never understood me! They never sacrificed a thing for me while I sacrificed everything.
“All those shit-for-brains bitch boys have done is take, take, take, so forgive me for getting fed up!” She snapped, throwing her arms up. “The last thing I was going to do was let them use Lily to drain me of my money through child support. They had to go,” Sue said matter-of-factly, gesturing at the gas container. “But Lily can’t join me when I move on from this place, so instead of letting my only child end up in some horrible foster home...” She held out the vial and syringe again. “I’m sending her on peacefully and painlessly, because I love her.”
I could only stare at her, jaw slack. I’ve said it before and I’d say it again, Soo Min might have been my twin, but there was no one on the planet who understood her less than me. “You really are fucked in the head.”
Her face twisted in a furious snarl. “That’s rich coming from you. Did you enjoy living my life these past few months, Sarah? Tell me, what do you call a person who pretends to be her dead sister all so she can sleep in her bed and fuck her husbands? Hmm?” She cupped her ear, leaning in for my answer. “Have they even thought of a word for that level of fucked up?”
“Yes,” I breezed. “All of them are synonyms of liar or duplicitous. Not great descriptors, sure, but it’s nowhere as bad as the words they call a sick bitch who gets five people killed, and then plots the death of five more.”
“Hey,” she barked, eyes flashing, “it wasn’t five! It was only Omma, Prado, and that post office bitch—and only because they left me no choice. Appa’s money is mine. It belongs to me! I was his favorite. I was the one he loved. I wasn’t letting some sad, jealous old cunt and her accomplices interfere with my father’s true wish—for me to be his heir. But I had nothing todo with that teacher guy getting killed, or with what Reynard did to himself.”
“Fuck’s sake,” I snapped, rolling my eyes. “Of course you didn’t kill Reynard or Layton. I did that.”
Sue froze with her mouth half open. “What did you say?”
“I killed them,” I droned, looking at her like the dumbass she was. “Duh. But don’t convince yourself their deaths weren’t your fault too, because it absolutely was. I saw almost right away what Layton was. First, with him indulging Lily so much she got sick at the school carnival, and then again when he tried to convince me to let him drive Lily home alone.
“My hackles were already up, but then he sealed his fate when he made that strange comment about if the manor would be searched again. After talking to Davis, I went straight upstairs to Lily’s room, tore it apart, and found the camera that bastard hid in her bathroom vent during the party when he was wandering around our home—exploring.” Rage tightened my grip on the pan handle. “Thankfully, a little thing like that was only set up to record, not broadcast, so he had to come back, retrieve it, and plug it in to see the video, but I took care of him long before that happened.”
I cocked my head, flashing her a mirthless smirk. “I want to thank you for persuading Reynard to bulk order all of those sleeping pills and drugs. There was plenty left over for the cupcake I laced and gave to Layton outside of school that afternoon, right before he was set to drive over to our house.
“Those fast-acting babies dropped him right on our doorstep. All I had to do was take the knife I stashed in the shoe cupboard and plunge it in his back,” I sang. “Thanks to you making sure the guys didn’t buy another security system, I got away with that, and with taking his car keys and stashing a few of Omma’s pills in his car.”
I shrugged. “So many of the pills Omma actually needed to take were just sitting there, piling up while the two of you medically tortured her. So I just searched all the side effects until I found one that had the worst effect on male libido, and stashed them in his car. I didn’t need to do more than that,” I said. “A man like Layton was bound to have all the evidence the cops needed to bridge the gap, hidden on his hard drive.
“And then, there was Reynard.”
“Rey— Reynard?” she croaked, looking at me like I was the one who horrified her.
