The Confession They Never Planned to Give
“You can’t prove anything,” Edward said, slowly regaining his composure. The negotiator in him surfaced. “It’s your word against mine.”
Raymond smiled—a tired, sorrowful smile.
“There are cameras in the hospital corridors, Edward. And you left your phone unlocked on the nightstand when you came near Isabella.”
It wasn’t true. He hadn’t seen any phone. But decades on the bench had taught him the value of a well-placed bluff.
And it worked.
Edward’s face collapsed completely. Cassandra covered her mouth with both hands.
“And,” Raymond added, pulling out his own phone, “I’ve been recording audio since the moment you said this would end tonight.”
This time, it was no bluff.
The recording app had been running for eight full minutes. Every sentence. Every whisper. Every horrifying detail was safely stored on that small screen.
Edward sank into the chair beside the bed. Not like a billionaire. Not like a man accustomed to control.
But like what he truly was—a cornered man.
“Why?” Raymond’s voice cracked for the first time. “Why, Edward? She loved you. She was carrying your child.”
Edward didn’t lift his head. He spoke to the floor, hollow and stripped bare.
“Because I didn’t love her anymore.”
Four words. Four words that reduced everything to ruins.
“I met Cassandra and… everything changed. Isabella was my past. The baby was a mistake. A divorce would have destroyed my image—my company, my contracts. The press would’ve finished me.”
“So you decided to remove her first,” Raymond said quietly.
Edward didn’t reply. He didn’t need to.
Cassandra sobbed against the wall. “I didn’t want this… he said it was the only way we could be together. That no one would get hurt. That it would be quick.”
“No one would get hurt,” Raymond echoed with contempt. “What about my granddaughter? The child growing inside Isabella? Were they part of your ‘solution’ too?”
The silence afterward was unbearable.
