Chapter 62 Sarah's Confession

Chapter 62 Sarah's Confession
Sarah POV
The cell was smaller than I'd imagined. Six feet by eight feet of concrete and steel, with a metal toilet in the corner and a thin mattress on a platform bolted to the wall. This was my life now. This was all I had left.
I sat on the edge of the mattress, staring at the gray wall. Three days since my arrest. Three days of silence broken only by the clang of cell doors and the shouting of other inmates. Three days to think about everything I'd lost.
Everything I'd destroyed. The guards had put me in isolation for my own protection. Apparently, even criminals had standards. A woman who kidnapped a sick baby wasn't exactly popular here.
"Sarah Mitchell." Detective Harris's voice echoed down the corridor. "You have a visitor."
I looked up as she appeared outside my cell, her expression unreadable. She wore a crisp gray suit and carried a leather folder under her arm.
"I have nothing to say to you," I muttered.
"That's fine. I have plenty to say to you." She nodded to the guard, who unlocked my cell. "Conference room. Now."
I shuffled down the hallway in my orange jumpsuit and shackles, very aware of how far I'd fallen. Three months ago, I'd been planning a wedding. Now I was facing the rest of my life in prison.
The conference room was as depressing as my cell, bare walls, a metal table, two chairs. Detective Harris sat across from me and opened her folder.
"Let's talk about your future, Sarah."
"I don't have a future."
"Not if you keep acting like this, no." She pulled out a stack of papers. "Right now, you're facing kidnapping, conspiracy to commit murder, accessory to murder, assault with intent, and about fifteen other charges. Your lawyer estimates you're looking at life without possibility of parole."
My stomach twisted. Life. Forever in this cage.
"However," Detective Harris continued, "the FBI is very interested in Alex Morrison's criminal network. The trafficking connections, the corrupt officials, the money laundering. You were with him for almost two years. You know things."
"So?"
"So I'm authorized to offer you a deal. One final deal, Sarah. After this, the offer disappears forever." She slid a document across the table. "Full cooperation. Complete testimony against everyone in Alex's network. Names, dates, locations, everything you know. In exchange, the prosecutor will recommend twenty-five years with possibility of parole after fifteen."
Twenty-five years. I'd be in my fifties when I got out. An old woman who'd wasted her entire life. But it was better than dying in here.
"And if I refuse?"
"Then you spend the rest of your natural life in prison. You'll die in a cell just like the one you're in now, alone and forgotten." Detective Harris leaned forward. "Sarah, I'm not going to pretend you deserve sympathy. What you did to Lily and that baby was monstrous. But I also know that Alex Morrison manipulated you. He was a master at finding vulnerable people and twisting them into weapons."
"Don't." My voice came out harsh. "Don't try to make me a victim. I knew what I was doing. I made my choices."
"Then make one more choice. The right choice, for once." She tapped the document. "Help us put away the people who helped Alex murder four women. Help us shut down the trafficking network. Help us stop this from happening to someone else."
I stared at the paper. Twenty-five years. A quarter of a century. But at least it was a number. At least there was an end.
"What do you want to know?"
Detective Harris pulled out a recording device and pressed record. "Everything. Start from the beginning."
I took a deep breath. "I met Alex Morrison two years ago at a charity gala. I was a pharmaceutical sales rep, recently divorced. He was charming, successful, and attentive. Everything my ex-husband wasn't." The words came easier than I expected. "He told me about his wife Lily. Said she was mentally unstable, that he was trapped in the marriage because she'd threatened to kill herself if he left."
"Was that true?"
"No. But I believed him." Shame burned in my chest. "He showed me fake medical records, staged arguments. He made me think I was saving him from an abusive wife."
"When did you learn the truth?"
"Gradually. Little things didn't add up. The way Lily looked at him, not with obsession, but with fear. The bruises she tried to hide. The way she flinched when he touched her." I closed my eyes. "I knew something was wrong, but I was already pregnant. Already in love with the life Alex promised me. So I ignored it."
"Tell me about the poisoning."
This was harder. This was where I became the monster.
"Alex had been poisoning Lily with organic mercury compounds in her IV and food. He'd done it before, to his previous wives. He explained it as 'helping her die peacefully' so they could be together." My voice shook. "He asked me to help increase the doses. To make it look like I was caring for her while actually killing her."
"And you agreed."
"I agreed." The words tasted like poison themselves. "I told myself she was already dying. That I was just speeding up the inevitable. But that was a lie. I was murdering her because I wanted her life, her money, her house. I wanted to wear her grandmother's ring and sleep in her bed. I wanted everything that was hers."
Detective Harris's expression remained neutral, but I saw the disgust in her eyes. "What about the baby?"
"When Lily escaped and I gave birth to a stillborn baby girl, I.." My voice broke. For a moment, I couldn't continue. "I held her. My daughter. She was perfect, but she wasn't breathing. The cord had been wrapped around her neck. I only had her for five minutes before she was gone."
"I'm sorry for your loss."
"Don't be. I don't deserve sympathy." Tears streamed down my face. "When Viktor called and said Lily had given birth to a healthy baby girl, I saw it as a sign. A way to replace what I'd lost. So I switched the babies. I left my dead daughter in the warehouse and took Lily's living one."
"Did you ever intend to care for Emma properly?"
The question made me flinch. "I don't know. In the beginning, I thought I could love her. But every time I looked at her, all I saw was revenge. A way to hurt Lily. The baby was just a tool to me, not a person." I wiped my eyes. "When she got sick, I panicked, not because I cared about her, but because I was losing my leverage. I was going to let her die if it meant I could hurt Lily more."
"Tell me about Alex's criminal network."
I spent the next two hours revealing everything. Names, addresses, operations. I told them about Viktor Kozlov and his trafficking connections. About Judge Morrison who Alex bribed for $2 million. About Dmitri who laundered money through offshore accounts. About Dr. Chen who provided fake medical records for all of Alex's wives.
I told them about Rebecca Morrison, Alex's first wife, who died of "sudden organ failure" in 2010. About Michelle Torres in 2014, same cause of death. About Jennifer Blake in 2018, who Alex murdered when she discovered the truth about his previous wives.
I named corrupt officials, dirty cops, lawyers who falsified documents. I described the trafficking routes used to move young women across state lines. I provided bank account numbers and shell company names. I burned Alex's entire empire to the ground.
When I finally finished, my throat was raw and my eyes were swollen from crying. Detective Harris turned off the recorder.
"That's good, Sarah. Very good." She gathered her papers. "The prosecutor will review your testimony. If everything checks out, we'll move forward with the plea deal."
"Wait." I grabbed her arm. "I need to write a letter. To Lily."
Detective Harris raised an eyebrow. "That's not part of the deal."
"I know. But I need to do it anyway." I released her arm. "Please. I need to say something to her. Even if she never reads it."
After a long moment, Detective Harris nodded. "I'll have paper and a pen sent to your cell. But understand, Lily doesn't have to read it. She doesn't owe you anything."
"I know."
Back in my cell, I sat with the blank paper for an hour before I could write. What could I possibly say? How could I put into words the depth of what I'd done?
Finally, I put pen to paper.
Dear Lily,
I don't expect you to read this. I don't expect forgiveness or understanding. I'm writing this because I need you to know that I see exactly what I became.
I was your best friend. I sat with you during your darkest moments. You trusted me with your fears and your pain, and I betrayed that trust in the worst possible way.
I could blame Alex. I could say he manipulated me, twisted my thinking, made me into someone I wasn't. But that would be a lie. I made my choices. Every dose of poison, every cruel word, every moment I stood by and watched you suffer, those were my decisions.
I told myself you had something I deserved. A home, a husband, security. I convinced myself that taking it from you was justified. But the truth is, I was just selfish. I was weak and bitter and jealous, and I let those feelings turn me into a monster.
When I held my daughter's lifeless body, I felt something break inside me. For five minutes, I was a mother. I loved her more than I'd ever loved anything. And then she was gone, and the pain was unbearable.
I should have mourned her. I should have let myself grieve. Instead, I tried to replace her with your baby. I took Emma not because I loved her, but because I wanted to make you feel the same pain I felt. I wanted you to know what it was like to lose a child.
That makes me worse than Alex. He was a sociopath who couldn't feel love. I felt it, and I chose cruelty anyway.
Emma is safe now. She's with you where she belongs. I hope she grows up happy and healthy, surrounded by love. I hope she never knows how close she came to being destroyed by my jealousy.
I have one request, though I have no right to ask anything of you. Someday, when Emma is old enough to ask questions, will you tell her something for me? Tell her that Sarah's baby girl, her name was Grace, was loved. For five minutes, she was loved more than anything in the world.
I know it doesn't matter. I know it doesn't change anything. But I need someone to remember that Grace existed, even if only briefly.
I'm not asking for forgiveness. What I did is unforgivable. I'm spending the rest of my life in prison, and it's exactly what I deserve. I just needed you to know that I see the truth now. I see what I did, and I accept responsibility for it.
I destroyed your life, stole your baby, and caused you unimaginable pain. If I could go back and make different choices, I would. But I can't. All I can do is make sure Alex's entire criminal network goes down with me.
I hope you find peace, Lily. I hope you and Emma have beautiful lives full of love and happiness. And I hope that someday, the nightmares stop.
You deserved better. Better than Alex. Better than me. Better than all of this.
I'm sorry. For whatever it's worth, I'm truly sorry.
Sarah
I folded the letter and called for the guard. "I need this delivered to Lily Morrison."
The guard took it without comment. As the cell door clanged shut behind him, I sat on my thin mattress and stared at the gray wall. Twenty-five years. Maybe more. Maybe I'd die here.
But at least I'd told the truth. At least I'd stopped lying to myself about what I'd become. It didn't make me feel better. Nothing could make this better. But it was something. A tiny step toward accepting the consequences of my choices.
I closed my eyes and saw Grace's perfect face. My daughter. The only good thing I'd ever created, and she'd lived for only five minutes.
"I'm sorry, baby girl," I whispered to the empty cell. "I'm sorry I couldn't be the mother you deserved."
The silence was my only answer. And for the first time since this nightmare began, I accepted that silence was all I deserved..