The police arrived swiftly, lights casting eerie patterns across the walls. In the ensuing chaos, statements were taken, and the pieces of the nightmare began to fit together. Jared had been involved in dubious financial dealings, debts mounting to insurmountable heights. In his twisted logic, eliminating us would allow him to escape, to start anew, unburdened by the family he saw as liabilities.

But as I sat there, the weight of revelation pressing down on me, a strange sense of resolve filled the void left by betrayal. Jared’s actions had shattered the life we knew, but they hadn’t broken us. We were alive, and in that, there was power.