Chapter 5 - THE HUNT FOR PROOFHOOK: She wasn't just surviving anymore. She was hunting.

Six weeks passed.

Mark was living in a dilapidated, one-room apartment on the edge of the city, working night shifts as a security guard—the only job that didn't do an extensive background check on his ruined corporate reputation. He was miserable, haunted every night by the memory of the empty hospital room and the cold, mocking laughter of Madison Vale.

He spent his days drinking cheap whiskey and stalking Emily’s social media, but she had completely erased her online footprint. It was as if she and the triplets had vanished off the face of the earth.

Then, one night, he received an anonymous text message on his burner phone.

Unknown: If you want to know what really happened to your daughter Hope, meet me at the old pier at 2 AM. Come alone.

Mark’s heart leaped into his throat. Hope? Was she alive?

At 2:00 AM, under a heavy fog rolling off the lake, Mark stood at the end of the rotting wooden pier. A dark SUV sat idling near the entrance. The rear window rolled down, revealing Emily.

She looked entirely different. Her soft, quiet look was gone. She wore a tailored black coat, her dark hair pulled back into a sleek ponytail, her face sharp, cold, and commanding.

“Emily!” Mark ran toward the vehicle, but two large, armed security guards stepped out of the front doors, blocking his path. “Emily, please! Let me see you! Let me see the girls!”

“Stay right there, Mark,” Emily said, her voice carrying across the foggy air like a blade. “You don't get to step any closer.”

“Emily, I made a terrible mistake! Madison tricked me! She led me on, she dragged me away—I didn't know you were in danger!” Mark pleaded, falling to his knees on the wet wood. “Please, I’m their father!”

“You stopped being their father the second you pressed the button to mute your phone while my body was filling with blood,” Emily said without a trace of emotion. “But I didn't call you here to hear your pathetic excuses. I called you here to give you a choice.”

She held up a clear glass vial containing a tiny amount of clear liquid, alongside a forensic toxicology report.

“This is the chemical compound found in the tea Madison gave you to feed me,” Emily said. “She used you, Mark. She knew that if I died in childbirth, or if the babies died, you would inherit a portion of my family's trust fund through our marriage contract—a contract she helped you draft three years ago.”

Mark froze, his brain struggling to process the words. “What... what are you talking about?”

“Madison didn't love you, Mark. She was broke. Her family's estate went bankrupt five years ago. She targeted you because she knew you had access to me. She poisoned my tea, sent you away so you wouldn't be there to give consent, and waited for us all to die on the operating table so she could sweep in and take the money.”

Mark stared at the vial, the pieces of the horror puzzle finally locking into place. Madison cutting the cake... her insistence that he turn off his phone... her sudden obsession with his legal marriage papers...

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“She... she tried to murder my children?” Mark gasped.

“She tried to murder all four of us,” Emily corrected. “And now, you are going to help me put her away for life. Or I will make sure the police charge you as her co-conspirator.”