Sarah finally turned to me, her eyes full of frozen tears, her lips quivering in a way I had never seen her before, and then she whispered in a broken voice that she could almost not hear
Mama Richard trying to kill you.

My hands froze on the steering wheel.

For a moment I felt that the whole world had stopped spinning. I didn’t understand the words at first, as if I had heard a sentence in a strange language. I blinked in amazement and stared at her for long moments as if I were looking for any trace of a joke for a misunderstanding of a teenage tantrum but I found none of it.

I just found a raw real fear that didn’t go through any artifice.

What did I say, my voice came out jammed.

She swallowed her saliva hard and said, pulling her fingers against the edge of the seat
, “Richard is trying to kill you, Mom.” I heard him myself last night on the phone talking about putting poison in the tea you always drink in front of guests.

I felt my heart sink to the bottom of my stomach.

Unconsciously, I applied the brakes so hard that the car almost collided with the vehicle in front of us at the signal. Our body shook violently and we heard a sharp honk from the back of the car. I noticed that the light had turned green, so I moved the car forward automatically, while my mind was still stuck at Sarah’s words.

I breathed hard and tried to hold
Sarah’s together, this was not the kind of joke that could be tolerated nor the kind that would be forgiven. What you are saying is very dangerous.

She looked at me with teary eyes, a mixture of panic and anger
, Mom, do you think for a moment that I was joking like that, if I wasn’t sure, I wouldn’t have written that paper and begged you to leave.

Her tone was unusually serious, and I felt chills running through my body.
I took a deep breath and asked
, okay tell me everything in detail. What exactly did she hear when she
closed her eyes for a moment as if she was gathering her courage and then said, “I
came down from my room yesterday late, maybe it was two o’clock in the morning.” I felt thirsty so I went to the kitchen to drink water. As I came back, I saw the light in Richard’s office still on and the office door was slightly open. I was about to go back to my room but I heard him mention your name.

My heart stopped for seconds.
My
name shook her
head he was speaking in a low voice but it was clear enough for me to hear. He literally
said almost everything was planned for tomorrow. Helen will be drinking tea as she always does on these occasions. No one will doubt anything. It would look like a heart attack. You assured me
and then laughed, Mom. He laughed as he said it as if he were talking about something completely ordinary.

I felt my stomach cramp.

Richard, the man with whom I thought I had found the stability of my life after the divorce, the man who shared my bedding, food, decisions, and the details of the days, could he be the same person who was planning that sentence to kill me quietly in front of everyone!

My desperate mind tried to hold on to any other
explanation that might have been misheard. Maybe he was talking about a project, a business plan, about something metaphorical. Perhaps
Sarah interrupted me quickly, as if she was expecting this escape before I said
no, Mom. He wasn’t talking about his work. After that sentence he said
with Helen disappearing from the picture I would be able to access the home insurance money everything would be under my control. You won’t be able to stop me after that.
Then he was silent for a moment and said, “As for the girl, I will deal with her later in my own way.”
My mother meant me.

I felt a chill run through my limbs as if the blood had withdrawn from my body.

I barely whispered
but why what drives him so crazy Sarah
replied in a low voice hesitant
Insurance, Mom, your life insurance policy. You remember the one you signed about six months ago for a whopping million dollars.
The scene suddenly hit my memory, the desk, the hot coffee papers, Richard’s calm smile as he told me that this was out of concern for me and that if something happened to him, God forbid, Sarah and I would be safe.

At that timeI felt grateful to him.

Now I realized that I was signing a piece of paper that could turn into a carefully planned death certificate.

I swallowed my saliva with difficulty
and how I knew about his debts and the other
account, I looked at the window for a moment and then looked at me
again after he finished the call, he remained in his office examining papers. I waited for him to come out and turn off the light and then quietly entered the office. I was scared, but my heart was telling me that something was dangerous. I saw a lot of files and bank statements. Some of them belong to his company and some are to his personal account. There were large numbers of debt piling up as if the company was on the verge of collapse. Then I found a bank account statement that I had never heard of before in Richard’s name alone.

I took a folded sheet of paper out of her pocket and handed it to me
, copying this disclosure before putting the papers back in place. See for yourself.

I opened the paper with trembling fingers and read repeated transfers of modest but continuous amounts for months from my personal account to the one I knew nothing about. The numbers, dates, bank name, and account holder’s name were all painfully present.

This is my money,” she whispered in a choked voice. The money I got after selling my
father’s apartment closed my eyes and the picture began to form terrifyingly slowly, a company on the verge of bankruptcy, secret account debts, a million dollars insurance policy for my life, a husband who pretended to be calm and careful
, and a real shiver in my daughter’s eyes, which could not be a figment of a fantasy.
“You weren’t blind, Mom,” Sarah said, holding my hand
, “Mom, he was the one who was good at acting.” He deceived you as he deceived me as he deceived everyone.
After a moment of heavy silence,
Sarah whispered, “Did you take any of those papers from the office

?” I just took pictures with my phone and put all the papers back in their places. But Richard is very precise I don’t know if he will doubt it or not.
I felt the air in the car weigh down.
I said quietly and tiredly,
we had to call the police.
She suddenly raised her head and said with a faint
objection and what are we going to tell them, Mom, that he was talking on the phone about poisoning you and that he had debts and that he was transferring money to his own account they would say it was just family disputes or misunderstandings or exaggeration. Who would believe that a respectable successful businessman in their eyes is planning to kill his wife for insurance will sound like a movie story rather than a real report.
She was right in that I don’t want to admit.
In official papers and visits, there is always a successful respectable gentleman, but I will look like a panicked woman who misunderstood things.
While I was thinking about it, my phone shook with a message.
I looked at the screen and read where
you two guests are asking about you.
Richard
is a seemingly ordinary message but now after everything I heard it seemed to be part of a fake story that he weaves perfectly.
Sarah said in a low
voice that he won’t leave us easily, won’t he

? He will look for us. He will turn everything that happens in his favor if he can.
We were silent for a while and then I felt that the fear that had taken hold of me at first began to gradually turn into something else: a calm, solid anger.
We need a guide,” I said as I looked at the road ahead with another eye.

A guide I asked Sarah.

Yes, something tangible, something that the police can see and touch, not just our words. Article that