My Cousin's Wife Ordered Security to Beat Me Off Our Family's $85M Religious Compound — Then My Master Badge Blacked Out Every Screen in the Sanctuary
With the holographic drive secured, I knew I needed more than just a legal truth. I needed an emotional truth, something to expose Megan’s direct malicious intent.
I thought of Thomas Kincaid, the chief groundskeeper. His haunted eyes at the cottage door. His unease when he talked about the smear campaign.
He had always been fiercely loyal to the Sanctuary, a man of simple faith. But I’d also seen the way Megan barked orders at him, and how he flinched. He was easily manipulated.
I found him in the Sanctuary’s sprawling greenhouse, watering orchids. The air was thick with humidity and the sweet scent of blossoms. It was a stark contrast to the unfolding drama outside.
He looked up when I entered, his movements suddenly stiff. He dropped his watering can, splashing water on the polished floor.
“Abigail,” he stammered, his face blanching. “I… I heard you were gone. That you were…”
“Unwell?” I finished for him, my voice calm. “Megan wants everyone to believe that.”
I walked closer, stopping among a row of vibrant fuchsias. “Thomas, I know what happened on that mountain trail.”
He flinched visibly. His eyes darted around the greenhouse, as if expecting Megan to appear from behind a palm tree.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he mumbled, refusing to meet my gaze. He picked up the watering can, but his hands trembled.
“My brakes failed,” I pressed gently. “Completely. It wasn’t an accident, was it?”
His shoulders slumped. He let out a long, ragged breath. The greenhouse suddenly felt suffocating.
“She made me do it,” he choked out, his voice barely audible. “Megan. She came to me a week before your drive. Said you were a danger, that you were going to ruin everything.”
He put the watering can down again, his face a picture of pure misery.
“She offered me money. A lot of money. Forty thousand dollars in cash.” He looked at me, tears welling in his eyes. “My daughter needed an operation. I… I was desperate.”
My breath hitched. Forty thousand dollars. For my life.
“She told me to loosen the hydraulic brake lines,” he continued, his voice cracking. “Just enough so they’d fail on the steep descent. She said you’d be fine, just a scare, a warning.”
“A warning?” I said, my voice rising slightly. “Thomas, I could have died. I almost did.”
“I know,” he whimpered, wiping his eyes with the back of a muddy hand. “When I heard you survived… I couldn’t sleep. It’s been eating at me.”
He looked at the orchids, then back at me. “I never meant for you to get hurt. I swear.”
“You have to tell someone,” I urged, stepping closer. “Tell the police. Tell the elders.”
He shook his head frantically. “She’ll ruin me. She’ll say I’m lying. She’ll say I’m crazy, too.”
“Not if you have proof,” I countered. “Not if you write down everything you just told me. Sign it. Get it notarized by someone outside the Sanctuary’s influence.”
He hesitated, a deep internal struggle playing across his face. His loyalty to the Sanctuary, his fear of Megan, his overwhelming guilt.
“A sworn affidavit,” I said, offering him a lifeline. “It will protect you. It will protect the truth.”
He looked at me, then at the bright flowers, then down at his trembling hands. “Okay,” he whispered, his voice gaining a fragile resolve. “I’ll do it. For my conscience. For the Sanctuary. For your grandfather’s true vision.”
His confession was the final piece of the puzzle. Intent. My accident wasn’t a random event; it was a deliberate act, and I had a witness.
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