Chapter 6: The Confession
Lila Cole sat in the small interview room with her hands cuffed to the table. The woman who had once been declared dead now looked very much alive, but the life had gone out of her eyes.
Warden Mitchell, two detectives, and a prosecutor sat across from her. Gavin watched from behind one-way glass, Chloe asleep in a chair beside him under the social worker’s watch.
Lila spoke without being prompted.
“I wanted him to suffer,” she said. “He was having an affair. I found the messages. I wanted him to lose everything the way he made me lose my dignity.”
She had planned it for months. Blood from a cut she had staged weeks earlier. A neighbor paid to lie about seeing Gavin leave the house. A body that never existed—only a scene made to look like murder. She had disappeared the night before the “murder” was reported, driving to a new town with cash and a new identity.
“I thought the insurance and the sympathy would be enough,” she said. “I didn’t think they would actually sentence him to death.”
The prosecutor leaned forward.
“You watched your husband sit on death row for five years and did nothing?”
Lila’s voice cracked.
“I told myself he deserved it. Then Chloe started asking questions. I went to see her once. I thought if I could explain… but she was too young. She just wanted her daddy.”
Gavin turned away from the glass. The woman he had loved, the mother of his child, had chosen revenge over their daughter’s childhood. The knowledge settled in his chest like cold stone.
Chloe stirred in the chair.
“Is Mommy in trouble?” she asked.
May you like
Gavin pulled her close.
“Yes, baby. But you’re safe. That’s what matters.”
