Chapter 3 - THE GRAVEYARD OF SECRETS"Turn it off! Turn that damn thing off!" Bradley shrieked, scrambling backward on his hands and knees until his back hit the far wall of the cabin. His eyes darted frantically between Agent Vance, David, and the open door. "It's fake! AI-generated! Deepfake technology! He’s crazy, he’s losing his mind, he’s senile!"
"We ran voice print verification through the Department of Justice labs twenty minutes ago, Mr. Miller," Agent Vance said calmly, stepping further into the room and pulling a pair of heavy steel handcuffs from his belt. "Match confidence rating: ninety-nine point eight percent. Along with your digital signature logging into the home security mainframe at 2:14 AM on the night of your mother's passing, it's an open-and-shut case of first-degree murder, elder abuse, and wire fraud."
David felt the last thirty years of his life crumble into dust. Every sacrifice he had made, every extra shift he had pulled on construction sites to pay for Bradley’s elite private schools, Harvard Business School, and his downtown penthouse—all of it had built the monster sitting in front of him.
"Why, Bradley?" David asked, his voice shaking, the raw agony in his tone cutting deeper than any physical blow. "We gave you everything. We worked our fingers to the bone so you wouldn't have to struggle. Why kill your mother over money?"
Bradley sneered, wiping a bead of sweat from his forehead, his arrogant facade momentarily flickering back to life. "Because you were weak, Dad! You and Mom spent twenty-five years crying over a dead baby in a graveyard while I was drowning in debt trying to keep up with my billionaire associates! I deserved that empire. Mom was going to change her will and leave everything to her—to the bastard daughter she hid away in foster care!"
Carol gasped, her eyes widening. "She didn't hide me... she was forced to."
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Bradley laughed hysterically. "Oh, save the sob story! Grandma paid off the crooked adoption agency thirty years ago because having an illegitimate, disabled child ruined the family's pristine social standing! Mom spent decades looking for you in secret, and when she finally found you six years ago, she wanted to rewrite the entire legacy. She had to go. And you're next, old man."
Before Bradley could lunge toward the window to make a desperate run for the beach, Agent Vance moved with blinding speed. He pinned Bradley face-down against the wooden floorboards, snapping the cold steel cuffs around his wrists with a sharp click.
