The front foyer doors swung open, letting in the damp evening chill along with Arthur Vance. But the warmth of his home was entirely gone, replaced by a suffocating horror.
Arthur froze. Blood was pooling on the pristine white marble. Evelyn lay trembling near the shattered crystal, her hands clutching a deep gash on her forearm, her face pale and painted with pure agony.
“Arthur… thank God you’re home,” Evelyn whimpered, her voice cracking with calculated desperation. “She came in here… she demanded money… when I said no, she threw the vase at me!”
Arthur’s eyes snapped toward the corner of the room. Standing frozen against the wood-paneled wall was Clara. She looked small, fragile, and utterly terrified—a far cry from the cold attacker Evelyn was painting her out to be.
“Clara?” Arthur’s voice was dangerously low, a mixture of disbelief and rising anger. “What are you doing in my house? What have you done?”
“Arthur, listen to me—” Clara begged, stepping forward, but Arthur immediately stepped between her and Evelyn, blocking Clara like she was a dangerous predator.
“Have you lost your mind?!” Arthur shouted, grabbing a cloth to press against Evelyn’s bleeding arm. “You disappeared five years ago after ruining this family’s trust, and now you break into my home and assault my wife?!”
“She’s lying to you, Arthur!” Clara cried out, her tears finally breaking through. “I didn’t touch her! She cut herself! She’s been lying to you for five whole years!”
Evelyn buried her face into Arthur’s chest, sobbing hysterically. “Make her leave, Arthur! Please… she’s insane!”
Clara’s hands trembled violently as she lifted the brown leather envelope in her hands. It was stained at the edge with a droplet of Evelyn’s blood from the shattered glass on the floor.
“If I’m insane, then explain this,” Clara said, her voice turning eerily steady. “You kicked me out because $2 million vanished from the company account into a shell firm in my name. You thought I betrayed you. But this envelope contains the real offshore incorporation papers—signed not by me, but by Evelyn’s biological brother two days before I was framed.”
Arthur’s chest heaved. He looked down at the bleeding woman in his arms, then up at the faded brown envelope in Clara’s hand.
For the first time in five years, doubt flickered in Arthur’s eyes.
Evelyn felt Arthur’s body stiffen. Panic seized her heart. If Arthur opened that envelope right now, everything she built—the fortune, the status, the marriage—would burn to ashes in seconds.
(To be continued in Episode 3…)
