Chapter 8: The Voice from the Pasture of Death
The audio file began to play. The acoustics of the soaring marble foyer amplified the playback with chilling clarity, echoing every single syllable across the high vaulted ceilings, bouncing off the oil paintings and the framed American flag hanging by the door.
Brianna’s recorded voice—smooth, calculated, and dripping with remorseless malice—poured from the phone’s tiny speaker.
“Put the lethal drop in his wine glass right before the vows.”
The sentence hung in the air like a cloud of toxic gas.
Ethan closed his eyes for a single second, letting the reality wash over him. The woman he had loved, trusted, and prepared to spend the rest of his life with had plotted to murder him on their wedding day, utilizing his own celebration as an execution chamber.
Sophia buried her face in her father’s chest, crying softly.
Brianna let out a high-pitched, hysterical laugh—a pathetic, broken sound that echoed pathetically through the grand hall. “You can’t prove anything!” she shrieked, her hands flying to her face as her carefully constructed facade finally pulverized into dust. “It’s AI! People use voice generators all the time! You’re ruining our wedding over a computer trick, Ethan! Give me the phone!”
Ethan slowly stood up to his full height, towering over her. He slipped the silver smartphone safely into the interior pocket of his charcoal tuxedo jacket, buttoning the suit coat with cold, deliberate precision.
“Our wedding?” Ethan asked, his voice dripping with icy contempt. “There is no wedding, Brianna. And there is no escape.”
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Before Brianna could lunge forward or scream another frantic excuse, the heavy oak front doors swung open again—not from panic this time, but with the synchronized, heavy boots of federal marshals and local state troopers entering the estate en masse.
Leading the tactical unit was Special Agent Marcus Vance of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s financial crimes division, accompanied by two local Newport detectives holding a signed federal warrant.
