Chapter 83: Chapter 83

RUBY.

To the ordinary passer-by, Jeremy and I looked like the norm, a mother and child duo taking a walk in their upscale neighbourhood and stopping by at a cute little shop to patronise a small business. On closer inspection, I was a nervous wreck, with different scenarios running through my head. My sweaty fingers moistened the handlebar of his stroller.

I wiped my sweaty palms on my jeans before entering the cute shop. It felt like I had been transported out of the modern day and into the Victorian era as I stepped into the tea room. I was ushered to a table and I calmed myself down enough to order some fancy tea blend and a pastry. There was nothing else to do after that but wait.

I watched the room as I waited, checking for any suspicious person who could be guilty of calling someone and sending them cryptic messages. There was no one out of the ordinary in the small space. A couple sat at one window seat while a mother-daughter duo sat on the other.

I sat at the back of the room where I could watch everyone. The staff looked quite ordinary as well. When they served me my tea and English muffin, I momentarily forgot my mission. I was too nervous to eat this morning so I left the house without a morsel of food making it into my belly.

Another muffin and a few cups of tea later, I'm contemplating leaving when the waiter approaches me.

"The manager would like to see you," she said. Now that was odd, it might just be exactly the odd I had been waiting for. She led me past the counter and toward the back. We passed a narrow hallway before she ushered me into the manager's office. It was a spacious room and right in the centre of it sat a slight woman in front of a gigantic table. Two computers sit on the table, one in front of her and the other to the side.

"Sorry for keeping you waiting like this but we thought it best to wait till your guard dog was distracted, please have a seat," she said.

"Who are you?" I asked with my arms folded.

"I'm a detective, and I was hired by your aunt."

"I don't have an aunt."

"None that you know of but you do have an aunt, she gave you the bingo ticket and she hired me to investigate some things in your family, specifically your mother's death."

"My mother committed suicide," I said quietly. Jeremy saw that as an appropriate time to wake up with a loud cry.

"Attend to the child, we will have time to discuss my findings about the truth of your mother's death and other issues." So I sat down looking around oddly as I fed Jeremy. After I had fed him and rocked him back to sleep she spoke again.

"Your aunt contacted me to investigate your mother's death over a year ago. Not many people know that your mother had any relatives but she's one of your mother's relatives."

"What did you find? It was a suicide right?"

"No, it wasn't, your mother was murdered."

"You have to be kidding me, the police came over to the house and confirmed her death. I saw her," I said, my voice breaking as I talked about her death.

"It was all a cover-up."

"Who could have killed her in her own home without us knowing?"

"Your father."

"No," I shook my head in disbelief, "he couldn't have, why would he?"

"I have evidence to back my reports, everything I'm telling you is cold facts and as for why, he had a solid motive for his actions." She paused, giving me time to take in all the information she had just fed me. How could I take in such information? It was hard to swallow that my father was a murderer and my mother his victim.

"I need to see this evidence," I said. She played a video on a tab and handed it over to me. In the old grainy video, I could see my mother gagged and bound to a chair. My father walked up to her and removed the cloth from her mouth.

"I'm asking for the last time, grant me access to all your accounts, including your trust," he said crouching down in front of her.

"Never," she spat out. He slapped her across the face, making her head turn to a sharp angle. He brought out a knife and ran it across the length of her arm before bringing it to rest on her wrist.

"If I have to repeat myself, you'll be breathing your last."

"I'll die anyway but you won't see a dime of my money," she said bravely.

"You can never tell, I might just decide to spare your life."

"That has to be the biggest lie you've ever told me, I know you've been poisoning me. I'll die eventually." He looked taken aback at her statement. "So you see, go ahead and kill me but no matter how hard you try, you won't get a dime of my money."

"I'll find a way, we're married. Your wealth transfers to me."

"The only person that has access to my money is my child, you got enough when you married me," she laughed. He raised the knife in anger.

I looked away as the knife came flying back down, but I couldn't block my ears from her screams.

"Who took the video? They could have helped her," I said, tears streaming down my face.

"You have to understand, it was taken by a poor helpless maid. How was she supposed to go up against her employer? She was scared to even talk to me but then with a little reassurance I got her to hand the video over."

"How could he kill her because of money they had me angry at her all these years? I thought she left me," I cried.

"I'm so sorry for your loss but now we have to talk about you. About how we can protect you."

"I don't need protection."

"Your father, who was one of the only people who knew about your mother's wealth, killed her for it. What do you think he would do to you?".

"He can't. He wouldn't kill me, right?

"The day your mother died all she owned, including the house you grew up in and a huge trust transferred to your name on your mother's instructions but there are some conditions attached to the trust. These conditions were placed on the original trust by her great-grandfather. One of the conditions was that you be married and twenty-five years of age. We have no guarantee that when you come of age your mother's fate will not befall you."

"Who else knows about this?"