Chapter 20

"I— I—" Evelyn stammered, her face draining of color as fear consumed her. Her fingers trembled violently around the phone, her voice failing her completely.

Liam, shocked by her reaction, swiftly took the device from Evelyn's shaking hands and answered the call.

"Hello?" Liam's deep voice echoed through the phone Natalie held.

"You sent someone to murder Olivia!" Natalie screamed, her accusing finger pointing directly at Evelyn. "The police are already on their way! We have irrefutable proof! You planned a killing, and now you'll rot in prison!"

Natalie's glare burned into Liam with fiery intensity.

"I swear I don't know anything about this—" Evelyn's words dissolved into choked sobs, her distress radiating through the room.

"The evidence is right here, clear as daylight! What possible explanation could you have?" Natalie snapped.

At that moment, the man sprawled on the floor groaned and cried out, "I'll tell you everything! Just don't send me to jail!"

"Fine, talk. If you're honest, I might let you walk away," Natalie conceded, realizing she could use this to destroy Evelyn's reputation in Liam's eyes without police involvement. The Bennett family's influence could handle this quietly.

Tears streamed down the man's face as he confessed. "I was afraid Olivia would expose everything, so I tried to kill her. She kept demanding more money—I couldn't keep paying!"

Natalie's face froze in shock. "What did you just say? Repeat that. Unless you'd rather confess at the police station?"

"I'm telling the truth! I even recorded our last phone call. Listen for yourself!" the man insisted, his voice rising.

Natalie quickly searched his phone, finding the recent call recording. The timestamp matched Evelyn's call.

"Calm down. I'll get you another fifty thousand for Olivia. Just don't do anything reckless, understand?" Evelyn's anxious voice pleaded through the recording.

"If I pay five hundred thousand now, that woman will just demand more! How can I keep up?" The man's voice dripped with desperation.

"But she's Liam's wife! This is life and death! You can't take this lightly," Evelyn implored.

"So what? I'm at my breaking point! The confidential documents she gave me only fetched two hundred thousand, but she's blackmailing me for a million! She's threatening to tell Liam and have him kill me!" The man's despair was palpable in the recording.

"If I'm going to die by Liam's hand or be driven to death by her, I won't go down alone. Go ahead, tell Liam! See if he spares me!" With that final threat, the call ended.

"There's more proof!" the man on the floor shouted. "All of Olivia's threatening texts are on my phone. I saved every one!"

"That's impossible! Olivia would never blackmail anyone!" Natalie refused to believe it, but Liam swiftly took the phone from her hands, immediately locating Olivia's number.

"Five hundred thousand. Tonight's the deadline. Bring it to Mercy Hospital's fifteenth floor. I've already sent Natalie away."

"You have one week to deliver five hundred thousand, or I'll tell Liam about the files you stole. As his wife, he won't touch me—but he'll destroy you!"

"The last payment wasn't enough. I need another five hundred thousand."

Liam scrolled through the damning messages rapidly. At the top, a photo caught his eye—his project proposal from last month.

The document showed the edge of a distinctive gold pen in the corner—a pen Liam kept exclusively in his home study. Olivia was the only one with access.

A storm brewed in Liam's eyes as he approached Olivia's hospital bed, thrusting the phone at her. "Explain this."

Olivia's functional left hand grasped the device. As she read, her eyes widened in horror. She nearly collapsed from the bed, only saved by Natalie's quick reflexes.

"This is slander! Olivia would never do this!" Natalie cried in disbelief.

"Natalie, perhaps you never truly knew your friend," Evelyn interjected softly, her voice cutting like glass.

"Lies! This is complete fabrication!" Natalie's voice cracked with fury.

Evelyn snatched the phone back and hit redial. Immediately, Olivia's phone rang.

"As you can see," Evelyn stated coldly, "the evidence speaks for itself."

"If that's true, why cover for her? Why not expose Olivia immediately? This is a setup!" Natalie roared.

"Enough!" Liam's voice thundered through the room, silencing everyone.

His burning gaze locked onto Olivia alone.

"Did you do this?"