BURNED EMPIRE
He said it flat, almost rehearsed, like he'd practiced the sentence in the car on the way over so it wouldn't come out sounding as broken as it actually was.
The apartment was quiet except for the sound of pages turning. Somewhere down the hall, I could hear the faint hum of the refrigerator, ordinary and out of place against the weight of what we were holding. George read over my shoulder, his jaw tightening with every page. "This isn't just leverage against you, Darian. This is a live confession of a crime. If this is accurate, Selena poisoned you deliberately, over years, and your mother buried it instead of reporting it."