The mother-in-law remained silent.
Her face, usually haughty and confident, now expressed fear.
“What were you trying to do?” Sophia asked.
“Did you want to kill me? Or maybe you just wanted me to get sick so Alex would leave me?”
Eleanor swallowed hard.
“You are not worthy of him. And that is why I deserve to die.”
“I didn’t want this. I thought you’d just get sick. You’d become weak and helpless, and Alex would realize how pathetic and useless you are and abandon you. But thallium is deadly. I didn’t know,” her mother-in-law cried.
“I thought it would only hurt you a little.”
Sophia looked at this woman – who until recently had been so terrifying and all-powerful – and felt only emptiness.
No hate, no fear.
Pure, utter exhaustion.
“Lucy, call the police,” she said quietly.
Eleanor threw herself at her.
“No, wait a minute. We can work something out. I’ll give you money. Lots of money.” But don’t call the police.
“Too late,” Sophia replied.
Much too late.
The police arrived within twenty minutes.
They took Eleanor away in handcuffs, disoriented and screaming about injustice and conspiracies.
Sophia stood on the sidewalk, wrapped in a coat one of the police officers had given her, watching the flashing blue and red lights of police cars illuminate the night street.
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