My mother collapsed into my father, sobbing. I couldn’t breathe.

The detective paused the video. “She struck her head,” he said quietly. “This isn’t an accident. This is a case.”

Within days, Jason was arrested—manslaughter, domestic abuse, obstruction. Headlines called it “the staircase tragedy,” as if it were fiction. Rachel vanished from the internet overnight.

At the arraignment, I sat behind the prosecution with Lily’s wedding ring hanging from a chain around my neck. Jason shuffled in wearing shackles and an orange jumpsuit. He no longer looked powerful—only small.

As he passed, he hissed, “Emily, tell them. Tell them I didn’t mean—”

I stood, my voice trembling but firm. “You brought your mistress to my sister’s funeral,” I said. “You meant every part of this.”

He looked away.

Months later, the trust was finalized. There was no child to inherit it, so everything passed to me, exactly as Lily planned. I didn’t feel fortunate. I felt burdened, like every dollar carried the weight of her life.

I moved into Lily’s house and changed it. I repainted the scuffed stairwell, installed brighter lights, and turned the unused nursery into a safe space—where women from shelters could come for help, advice, or simply to be believed.

Some nights, I sit at the kitchen table with Lily’s letter spread before me. She wasn’t just preparing a will.

She was designing an escape—just in case she never made it out.

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