The Villain's Wife

"Soon after, I became estranged from my parents and got closer to my grandparents. That was until my grandmother died. No— let me correct that. It was until, my grandmother was murdered." Mrs. Brooke's eyes turned sharp. "They thought it was a heart attack. That she died in her sleep. However, I know that was not the case. Everyone in my family knew that someone murdered her. Soon after my grandfather followed his beloved wife. This time he died of suicide." She balled her hand into tight fists. "It was murder. Someone killed my grandparents."

Lily pursed her lips as she thought about Lilian's death last year. The doctor said it was of natural causes and she immediately believed it. Lily had been away on business trips and doing everything she could for the company that she was not able to spend a lot of time with her grandmother. She was not even there when she died. This was one of her greatest regrets in life.

Lily had been trying to tell herself that her grandmother would prefer it like that. Lilian was never emotional, she would have hated to see Lily crying in front of her. Lily had assured herself that it was fine. That this was what her grandmother had wanted.

She never asked questions simply because she was scared. Afraid to face the truth— the fact that she was not there during the last days of her grandmother's life.

"At first, my parents warned me to stay away. They begged me to leave Wales." Mrs. Brooke continued. "I did. I left them. But I never stopped investigating. I just— I had this ability or I chose to believe that I have one. The ability to sense that something was definitely wrong about someone, or something. People call it instinct."

Her words took Lily inside her own memory. Did she investigate Lilian's death? Of course not. Instead, she moved on. She went to her office, spent the night on Lilian's chair, crying. Then she moved on. She drowned herself in her job after Lilian's funeral and never even visited her house. She just— She was really pathetic back then, Lily thought inwardly.

"So… I stumbled upon this… I don't know. The Organization? I found it in one of my grandfather's old recording tapes. He loved those little recorders and always had one with him. He called it… The Order of the Specter."

Lily frowned. She had never heard of an organization like that before. "Sounds like a title of a book or a movie." She noted.

"I know. I always believed it was some book. I did my research and well… came up with nothing."

"What were his exact words?" Lily asked.

"He said 'it must be the Order… the Order of the Specter' that's all. I know this sounds crazy but— "

"But you felt it was real?"

Mrs. Brooke nodded. "I just… Because of this I started digging more. I went back to Wales and retrieved or at least tried to retrieve the contents in my grandparent's safe. Unfortunately, it was all stolen. There was a burglary in town and my grandparent's house was one of the houses that they stole from. And I thought… it made sense… no one was living in the house at that time. Then I thought… what if it was a cover up?"

"What if… What if someone was trying to steal my grandparents possession because they knew about something? Maybe it was some black ops mission? I mean… my grandfather fought in world war two. Maybe he discovered something? Maybe some sort of evidence? I don't know… this was all an assumption." Mrs. Brooke bit her lips. "I know I sound crazy, right now." She let out a sigh. "Please… ignore my ramblings. I just… sometimes, I still hope that they were alive so I could just ask them about it."

Lily stayed silent. She eyed the pool of tears in Mrs. Brooke's eyes and sigh inwardly. It seems that the death of Mrs. Brooke's grandparents really caused her a lot of trauma— something that Mrs. Brooke never dealt with until now. "So … my grandmother?" While Mrs. Brooke had a gripping story, Lily hadn't really heard anything about Lilian yet. Lily had been through a lot that trusting a stranger's words was something that she would never do.

"Well… when I found that photo in your hand. I did some research and found out that Lilian Facci and my grandmother died with the same causes. Heart Attack, dead while they were asleep." Mrs. Brooke's clear gaze turned towards her. "I know… I sound really crazy. But… I don't know… I just… I just thought that maybe you could investigate?"

"Then may I know why you stopped investigating the matter?

Mrs. Brooke turned silent. Guilt flashed in her eyes. "My parents' business went down. It just… after I started investigating, snooping around and talking to my grandparent's friends, our family business just… our employees turned against us. The government filed a case against us from some tax problems. We never encountered this kind of problem before."

"So, you thought, it was because you started investigating their deaths that someone— or this order of the specter was trying to warn you or something?"

In response, Mrs. Brooke nodded before she lowered her head. "This was the reason why I married into a man that I don't love. My husband saved my family's business. In return, I became his wife while he used our company as a stepping stone in his plans to branch out into Europe." She then smiled at Lily before shaking her head. "It's not that I regret it. Mr. Brooke is truly a nice man. Slowly, I fell for him. I learned how to care for him. I love and respect the man and I am planning to spend the rest of my life with him." However, after what happened her parents had urged her to forget about what happened with her grandparents and not to involve herself in their matters ever again. Or she would suffer the consequences.

Lily pursed her lips as she stared at Mrs. Brooke's face. So… two people who died with the same causes. Is that really something that she should investigate?

........

Proofreader: Dragon777

Thank you for the support and please don't forget to vote with your powerstones!