PART 2
Around midnight, I heard a very soft whisper. It was so quiet that I thought it was just the wind against the glass.
“Nicole,” the voice said.
I jumped out of my chair and looked at the bed. Paxton had his eyes open. His eyes were not blank anymore. He looked very tired, but he was completely awake.
I wanted to scream with happiness, but he moved his lips quickly to stop me.
“Do not call for help because that camera on the wall records sound too,” he whispered weakly.
I leaned over him and pretended to fix his pillow so the camera would not see anything strange.
“Do not eat any food from the fridge, do not touch those sleeping pills, and do not sign that black notebook,” he whispered in my ear.
I felt like my whole world was turning upside down.
Paxton explained the situation to me in short, painful sentences. He told me that he actually woke up for short periods during the night. Every time the private doctor noticed him moving, the doctor gave him a stronger dose of sedatives. He could hear our voices during the day, but the drugs made his body feel like heavy stone.
“They want to keep me asleep forever,” Paxton whispered. “And they want to frame you for it.”
Raymond and Holden did not just owe thirty-five million dollars. They actually owed almost ninety million dollars to angry investors. They had forged Paxton’s signature on his business documents to show the investors they had enough property to back up their debts. They had also secretly increased his life insurance policy to fifty-five million dollars without telling him.
Their plan was very simple and evil. They wanted to keep him asleep, force me to sign the nurse’s logbook, and drug me with the sleeping pills. If Paxton died, they would tell the police that I mixed up the medicine doses because I was too tired. Then the family would claim the insurance money, take his workshop, and pay off their debts.
“The fruit smoothie at the workshop was not an accident,” he murmured. “Raymond has tried to get rid of me before.”
He reminded me of a few strange incidents from the past few months. His truck brakes had failed suddenly, there was a weird gas leak at his garage, and he had spent three days in the hospital after a family dinner. We had always assumed it was just bad luck, but it was all planned.
The next morning, I acted like everything was normal. Kelly came to me and asked me to sign the past pages of the notebook to clear the paperwork. I said no and demanded a written prescription from the doctor for every single medicine she wanted to give him. Her face turned white with fear.
A few hours later, I got a secret call from Anthony Salgado. He was a trusted lawyer and a close friend of Paxton. He kept backup copies of all Paxton’s business papers in case of an emergency. He snuck into the mansion through the back door dressed as a delivery guy.
He brought a reliable doctor named Dr. Daniel Robles with him. Dr. Robles checked my husband quickly and confirmed that Paxton was not brain-dead at all. We collected the chemical pills, the extra sedatives, and the fake medical notes left by the family doctor. We sealed a sample of the medicine to use as legal proof later.
Suddenly, Kelly broke down and started crying in front of us. She confessed that Raymond forced her to write those lies in the notebook because her younger brother owed Raymond thousands of dollars from illegal gambling. She showed us the text messages on her phone from Raymond. They said, “Make sure Nicole signs,” “Take photos of her with the pills,” and “We need proof that she is running the house.”
That night, a strange email arrived on Paxton’s old work phone. It said, “Look under the loose brick next to the garden well.”
Anthony and I went out to the dark yard. Under the brick, we found a waterproof bag. Inside were the secret debt contracts, recorded videos, and a draft of a death certificate. Paxton’s full name was already typed on it. The paper stated the cause of death was lung failure due to brain issues.
The only things missing were the exact date and time.
In the final video file on the drive, Holden was recording himself hiding the bag in the yard. His voice was shaking with fear.
“This is not just a money scam anymore,” Holden said to the camera. “We are committing actual murder here.”
At the end of the video, we could hear Raymond’s voice in the background. He was saying that they would return to Phoenix the very next day.
Right then, we realized they were not coming back to see if Paxton was feeling better. They were coming back to finish their plan and kill him.
