Page 125 of End Game

The older woman smiled, and Kayla’s heart shrank to the size of a raisin.

“I am more me now than I’ve been in nearly three decades.” A line of perfect white teeth appeared, and her head tilted like a female praying mantis seconds before she chomped into her lover’s head. “Did you never wonder about Vin’s sudden change of heart?”

Confused by the shift, Kayla responded like an automaton. “He wasn’t ready for marriage yet.” Vincent Bonetti had been her first love. The only man before Ash that she imagined a future with. But once they started looking at rings, he all but disappeared.

“If that were true, why didn’t he stick around until he was ready to commit?”

Kayla stared at her aunt, prepared for another emotional apocalypse.

“You stupid, naive girl. Your precious Vin wanted the multi-six-figure CFO position. I”—her pink-painted forefinger tapped her chest—“offered him more than he wanted you.” She jabbed the finger in Kayla’s direction.

Sadness blurred her vision. Not for losing Vin. She’d washed him from her life years ago. But for losing the people she used to know, like her aunties and Mason. “Why would you interfere in my private life?”

“When you started talking about rings, I knew I had to do something. Husband, children, career—too many distractions. Service needed your lobbying firm. We didn’t need the others, so I cut them out before they bloomed.”

Kayla was going to be sick. How could she have not seen this other Elsie? Was this how wives of serial killers felt when their husbands were caught? Was Elsie a psychopath? Or was she like most people who get too much power and begin thinking they’re gods? Above the law?

She’d figure out the psychology of it later. Right now, she had a burning question in need of extinguishing. “Vicky’s husband. Was he a distraction, too?”

Elsie smiled.

Emotion roughened her voice. “And Linda. Were you the one feeding her vitriol about her mother?”

“Can’t take credit for the daughter. Sybil had fun with that one.”

“How else does Sybil play into all of this?”

“No ‘auntie’ for us anymore?”

Kayla said nothing. Simply stared at the creature who was ripping out her heart with every word she uttered.

Elsie sighed. “Sybil started out promising. On board with my plan until it became obvious that Jillian suspected us of killing Victoria.” She glanced back at the building where Jillian was imprisoned. “Losing Jill was one too many friends, I guess.”

“Why did you kill Vicky?”

“She’d lost her way.”

“Because of her working relationship with the Assembly’s male leadership?”

“Men should’ve lost their right to lead decades ago, but the majority of the voting public cannot reason for themselves.”

“Aren’t you the one who put Vin in a CFO position?”

“Temporary, my dear. I fired him a year later for embezzlement.”

“Evidence, no doubt, fabricated by you.”

“No doubt.”

Disgust and anger overrode her sadness. “Where’s Sybil?”

“Snoozing away in her mansion. She’ll be quite shocked when the drug wears off and she finds first responders swarming her property to put out a flame she set.”

Kayla took in the armed contractors. “Evan Barclay won’t let his men help you frame his mother for murder.”

Elsie laughed. “Do you think I’m stupid enough to use Evan’s men for this project?” She shook her head. “Tell me, does knowing all of this bring you comfort?”

“The only thing that will bring me comfort is shredding your plan and watching your face as you’re sentenced to a lifetime in prison.”

---