He Deceived Me So I Destroyed His Family’s Legacy Chapter 18
“And then we’ll see if she has the shame to keep on living.”
I lifted my gaze past him.
“To the investigators behind that door.”
“Did you get all of that?”
The door of the pharmacy next door slowly opened, the sound lost in the rain.
Investigators from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, NYPD detectives, and Putnam County officers stepped out.
The assistant district attorney leading them held up a sworn statement, his face grave.
“We heard it all.”
“Julian Blackwood is tied to more than one death.”
“Laura from the Lower East Side, who drowned herself in the river. Tracy from Harlem, who hanged herself. Amy, an underage girl from Inwood, who died after being left sick and untreated. We have payment records showing hush money from the Blackwood Group in every single case.”
“Victims’ complaints were suppressed. Witnesses disappeared. Financial records were destroyed.”
The blood drained from Adrian’s face.
Vanessa stumbled backward.
“It wasn’t my fault.”
“I didn’t force them to die.”
“I only had my assistant deliver the money.”
“The ones who jumped, the ones who killed themselves, the ones who were sent away—I didn’t kill them.”
Her voice shook uncontrollably as she pointed at Adrian.
“It was him! He said as long as the statements never reached the prosecutors, as long as the victims kept quiet, the Blackwoods would never be touched.”
Adrian whipped around.
“Vanessa!”
Vanessa collapsed into the rain-soaked dirt, scrambling backward as she cried.
“Don’t blame me.”
“I’m not going to prison for you.”
The assistant district attorney spoke coldly.
“The Manhattan D.A.’s office has been investigating these cases for months.”
“Now that Mr. Blackwood has personally admitted that the family used money to cover up deaths and concealed crimes as private disputes—”
“the court has issued a warrant. You’re coming back to New York with us.”
Adrian staggered.
He looked at me, and for the first time, I saw fear in his eyes.
“Nora Hale.”
“You set me up?”
I slowly pulled my wrist from his bruising grip.
“Your family was rotten to the core.”
Adrian stumbled back another step.