Page 63 of Doctor Grump

“Yes, but unfortunately, he stumbled upon the one thing he should never have.” She shrugged nonchalantly. “I guess the loan sharks must have been chomping his heels because he had an appraiser value the lakehouse to see if he could get anything out of it. That was when he discovered the truth about it and the fact that it was on an oil field. Of course, he came to see me and asked for my help to convince you to sell it.”

“And that’s when you poisoned him.”

“Yes,” she admitted. “I needed something that would be slow enough so that I would not be suspected while still being fast enough to disarm him before he could talk to you. I told him to give me a few days to convince you without mentioning anything about it to you or your mother. And what do you know, the old man kept his word.”

Oh, God. Dad would have already known that I wouldn’t sell it and might have thought Bella would be the only one who could convince me. And Bella had taken advantage of that.

And what got to me was that she didn’t have a single morsel of remorse. She responded as casually as if she was just listing out what she had gotten at the grocery store.

To think that my cousin was this person all this time, and I just never noticed. “Oh my God.”

“Yes,” she said, frowning. “And don’t think I’m this horrible person either because I could have taken you out from the beginning. But I tried to do it the nice way. I asked you to sell me the house at first, but you were certain you wouldn’t sell."

“I thought you were doing me a favor. You never explained why you wanted it.”Or the fact that you were a homicidal maniac.Had she clued me in on the key detail, I probably would have given the thing away with very little fuss.

Although, stubbornly, despite it all, I wasn’t sure I would have sold the lakehouse regardless. While it may not mean as much to me, it held a special place in Judith’s memory, and she wanted me to keep it. It was the only place the woman had been truly happy, and it was hard not to think of her spirit being unable to rest without that house.

Now I fully understood the reason for my grandmother leaving the house to me. She didn’t want to sell, and I was probably the only member of the family who wouldn’t sell, even with the ridiculous amount the government offered.

Or perhaps, had she wanted me to sell it? Had she given me the one thing she knew the main branch would not fight us for because they had no idea about its value? Had she given my family a way out of our debts, one we hadn’t realized?

“When I decided you had to die, I tried to make it as painless as possible,” she continued. “I wanted to spare you this…the knowledge that it was me all along. I even went as far as paying an assassin to take you out, but he was the most incompetent person I had ever met. I eventually had to get rid of him after he couldn’t even run you over properly.”

Shock ricocheted through me. “Wait, you paid someone to run me over?”

“Yes,” she answered matter-of-factly. “Multiple times. He was also supposed to drop a lantern on your head, but each time, someone was always around to interfere. You must have ridiculously good luck. Or maybe the old lady is watching over you from above. You always were her favorite.” Bitterness laced her tone at the last statement.

“She loved you too,” I said. “How could you do this to her?”

“Loved me?” Bella suddenly looked angry as she scoffed. “Don’t make me laugh. I doubt the old woman even knew what that word meant. She certainly didn’t raise us as if she loved us, and even after weeks of sucking up to her, she only left me with an old necklace. You know, at first, I felt kinda bad for killing her and all, but not after finding out that jewelry was all she left me in her will.”

I don’t know why that final exposition shocked me. It shouldn’t have, given everything I had just discovered about my cousin. But somehow, this realization hit harder. “You killed Judith?!” I gasped.

Bella shrugged, brushing it off. “You saw how she was. It was a mercy killing at that point. Plus, the sooner she was gone, the quicker we could get our hands on what we needed. It was a win-win situation.”

“Oh my God.” Tears sprung to my eyes, and I choked back a cry.Poor Judith. Murdered at the hands of one of the people she trusted most, her own family member.God, I could see her lying helplessly, unable to even call for help and knowing that her death would most likely be ruled as a natural progression of her disease.

She could have lived.The realization sent heartbreaking wrath through me.She had been getting better, and she would still be alive if this bitch hadn’t killed her.

Bella rolled her eyes. “Don’t turn on the waterworks now. You know what I’m saying is true.”

“You won’t get away with this.”

She grinned crazily. “I think I already have.”

At which point, we both heard the sound of the sirens, which had the smile slipping right off her face.

Relief spread through me at the sound. They had found me.Thank God. Thank God.

At first, I had the horrible thought that the sirens weren’t coming to us. That they would simply turn down the road and continue on their merry way. But then, one after another, the sirens stopped in front of our home. Still holding the gun to me, Bella inched over to glance out the window.

“You bitch,” she snarled. “You called the cops.”

She sounded truly offended. Like I had cheated at the game we were playing. I just shrugged as Bella quickly moved behind me, yelling loudly that she would shoot if anyone came close. At which point, the police stopped their advance up the driveway, and it became a stand-off.

Minutes passed, and then nearly an hour with no progress. The police did not come in, and any time they attempted to breach, Bella would fire a shot in the air and yell that it was a warning shot, stating that the next one would go into my skull. I nearly regretted calling the police at this point. I could see the situation going south very soon because while Bella was stuck, so was I.

“You stupid bitch,” she muttered angrily as she bit her nails. “You’ve made a mess of this whole thing.”

---