The commander pressed play. Helen’s voice filled the room. It was unmistakable.
“Do not be naive, Mark. That brat and her mother are not going to stop. They have to understand who we are.”
“It is not enough for her to give in,” Helen snapped. “We need to destroy her credibility completely. I already hired the PR team. By the weekend, half the city is going to think Ariana is a calculating liar.”
Ariana covered her mouth, tears streaming down her face. But the next recording was the nail in the coffin.
“Mom, did you… did I… what?” Mark asked on the tape, sounding younger, scared.
“Son, do you think your mother is capable of doing what is necessary to protect her family? Well, yes, I am. Your father thought he was invincible, too. He thought he could challenge me. And look how he ended up. A cold laugh at the bottom of the stairs.”
The room went silent.
“It is a confession,” I said, my voice barely a whisper. “A confession of murder.”
It turns out Helen hadn’t just been an abuser; she was a killer. She had murdered her husband, Ray, 11 years ago and staged it as an accident. And she had raised Mark to be just like her.
The package had come from Albert Harrison, Ray’s cousin. An old man who had lived in fear of Helen for a decade but finally found the courage to speak up when he saw what was happening to Ariana.
The security cameras at Ariana’s old house caught him destroying everything. Breaking windows, slashing the sofa, spray-painting “LIAR” in red across the walls. He was arrested immediately.
Ariana asked to see him. Against my better judgment, I agreed.
In the prison visiting room, Mark looked small. The arrogance was gone.
“Ariana,” he pleaded, tears in his eyes. “I made a mistake. I can fix it. We can fix everything. I love you.”
Ariana stood tall, looking at him through the glass.
“I did not come to forgive you, Mark. I came to tell you the truth. The truth I should have told you 3 years ago.”
“Ariana, please…”
Mark crumbled. He sobbed, folding over the table. “I don’t know who I am without her.”
“And that,” Ariana said, her voice steady, “is the tragedy. Because you could have been different. But I am no longer part of your story.”
She turned and walked out. She didn’t look back.
The trials were brutal, but the evidence was overwhelming.
Mark was found guilty on all charges: domestic violence, violation of a restraining order, destruction of property. He was sentenced to 5 years in prison.
Helen’s trial was the spectacle of the year. The reopening of Ray Harrison’s death investigation, combined with the recordings and Albert’s testimony, sealed her fate. She was convicted of intentional homicide and obstruction of justice. 12 years in prison.
When the judge read the sentence, Helen screamed. She pointed at me, yelling that I had destroyed her family.
“You destroyed your own family,” I responded calmly from the gallery. “I just made sure you paid for it.”
Karma arrived a year later. Helen suffered a stroke in prison. She survived but was left partially paralyzed, dependent on others for everything—a poetic justice for a woman who had spent her life controlling everyone around her.
As for us? Continue reading…
