7
478words
I raised my hand. "I did."
The three of us were taken to the station. Jacob had scratches all over his face and arms. The cut on his arm had scabbed but was still bleeding.
Emily didn't look much better—Jacob had slapped her multiple times. Her face was swollen, her hair a mess. She looked like a complete mess.
"Officer, I want to press charges for assault." Jacob showed them the cut on his arm.
"Officer, I want to press charges too. He killed my mom." Emily glared hatefully at Jacob.
The officer looked at me. "You called? Why?"
I pointed at them. "I'm accusing them of conspiring to kill my mother-in-law—my wife's mother."
Emily immediately denied it. "It wasn't me! I didn't!"
I smiled coldly and played a recording from my phone.
In it, Emily proudly admitted she'd intentionally mixed shellfish butter into the hot sauce.
Hearing the recording, Emily lunged for my phone but was restrained by an officer.
She could only listen, seething with rage.
"What about him?" The officer looked at Jacob.
I took back my phone and played another recording. Jacob's smug voice filled the room.
"Also, mixing shellfish butter into the hot sauce was my idea. Don't blame Emily."
"I just didn't want to see her upset. Thought your mom could use a little lesson, heh."
Jacob paled as he listened.
The officers looked serious. Soon, Emily and Jacob were taken to separate interrogation rooms. When they came out, both wore the same expression: regret, despair, numbness.
An officer called me into his office and explained that initially, Emily and Jacob had planned to target my mom.
Emily knew my mom was severely allergic to shellfish. Once, just using a bowl that had held shellfish butter caused a reaction that sent her to the hospital.
That bowl had been washed three times with soap.
Emily originally tried to scare my mom—she thought using a shellfish-contaminated bowl would be enough to send her to the hospital again. But Jacob suggested adding shellfish butter directly to her food.
Emily didn't want to eat with my mom, so how could she add shellfish butter to her food?
That's when she thought of the hot sauce.
My mom loved spicy food, and hot sauce had a strong flavor. Mixing shellfish butter into it would be hard to detect.
But what she never expected was that her own mom would be the one to visit.
And like my mom, her mom also loved spicy food.
I already knew most of this, but I pretended to be shocked.
The officer told me Emily and Jacob would likely face criminal charges and to prepare myself.
Of course I knew. I wanted them in jail. If they loved each other so much, they could be together behind bars.
