My heart raced as I searched for the small urn containing my brother's ashes. To my relief, it remained untouched in its velvet bag.
Just as I clutched the urn to my chest, Victoria appeared at the basement door, holding something in a blood-stained pillowcase.
"Looking for this?" she asked sweetly, dumping the contents onto the floor.
Cassie's lifeless body slid out, her once-beautiful coat with dried blood.
"Poor thing kept meowing for you while you were in the hospital," Victoria said with a pout. "Alexander said she was distressing me and the baby."
My legs nearly gave out beneath me.
She scrolled through her gallery. "Want to see something interesting? Remember when your brother was dying and you begged Alexander to use his connections to get him into that experimental treatment program?"
She turned the screen toward me, revealing a video of herself and Alexander in bed.
"This was taken the exact moment you were calling him from the hospital. Listen—"
From the recording, I heard my desperate voice: "Alexander, please, the doctor says James only has hours left. I just need you to sign the approval as his financial guarantor."