Chapter 5 - The Diary of Margaret
The brass lock gave a soft, satisfying click as Julian turned the key, his hand trembling as he pulled the heavy drawer open. Inside, resting on a bed of dark velvet, lay a weathered leather-bound journal bearing the initials M.V.—Margaret Vance. Julian lifted the diary reverently, running his thumb over the embossed leather that he had not touched since the day his first wife disappeared. He flipped the cover open, and the familiar, elegant handwriting of the woman he had loved stared back up at him from the yellowed pages. Elena watched him with an unreadable expression, leaning casually against the bedpost as if observing a stranger at a museum exhibit. The entry on the top visible page was dated just three days before Margaret went missing, and the words written there made Julian’s blood run completely cold. Margaret wrote that Elena, who had been hired as her personal financial advisor, was slowly draining the family accounts and subtly poisoning her tea with an unknown substance that caused severe memory lapses and disorientation. Julian gasped, stumbling backward until his spine hit the edge of the wardrobe. He looked up at Elena, horror and betrayal suffocating him.
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