Chapter 9
578words
"Seriously?" York scoffed, a smug grin spreading across his face as he pulled out his so-called proof—a voice recording. "You're still going to deny it with all this proof staring you in the face?"
The audio crackled to life. Sure enough, it was my voice—no denying that. York had twisted it beyond recognition though, cutting and splicing the conversation until it sounded like I had sold out for cash. The recording made it seem like I had arranged for some rich guy to take Susanna's dad's place for a kidney donation and then had Susanna kidnapped so that she could not see her dad one last time.
In the chaos, York's men stirred up trouble at the hospital, telling Susanna's dad that he was holding her back. They claimed she would be married to me already if it weren't for him.
To really nail it, they had a bank transfer from an account with my name on it. It was the money transferred to the so-called kidnappers. The whole thing was a perfect trap.
Susanna's eyes were filled with venom as she threw the evidence in dad's face. "Take a good look at your 'precious' son," she spat, her words like poison.
"Dead, huh?" York chimed in, his voice dripping with malice. "Buried where, exactly? Or is this all just some sick game? Are you waiting for her to break down when she finds out he's gone? You've always known how to pull her strings. You know that she likes to act tough but is actually soft inside."
Susanna's face contorted with fury at York's words, and they dragged dad toward my supposed resting place. I could see the tension building in her, the doubt creeping in. She looked around, as if expecting me to pop out from behind a tree and ready to yell, "Gotcha!"
However, there was no surprise coming. I was gone. My body was buried six feet under, and I was not about to show up to ruin her revenge.
She waited and waited, but when I did not appear, her patience snapped.
"Where's Matthew?" she snarled, glaring at dad. "Where is he, you old fool? Bring him out!
"Still playing games, even now?" she seethed. "You dragged your whole family into this, and all for what? I'm here. So where's he hiding?"
Dad stood by my grave, his shoulders slumped and his eyes brimming with sorrow. His voice trembled. "I told you… he's gone. We buried him here, right here."
Susanna's anger twisted into something uglier. She spat at dad's feet. "You expect me to believe this?" Her voice dripped with contempt. "You pick some random grave in the middle of nowhere and claim it's Matthew's? You could've at least made the lie convincing."
Bitterness tore at my heart. She would not believe it, would not let herself accept that I was truly gone. I couldn't blame her, though.
When I died, the settlement money went to dad. He used it to help the company's workers and pay for Yvan's medical bills. Mom's health spiraled after I was gone, and the debts piled up. They had planned to move my grave to a better place once things improved—but things never did, and now, this unmarked spot in the dirt was all that remained of me.
