"Officer, I swear, I''m innocent." Grace''s voice shook, barely holding itself together. "Alex''s recording doesn''t prove anything. For all we know, Reese paid him off just to set me up."


    "I never told anyone to hurt Marie."


    Roman watched her with an icy stare,pletely unfazed by her performance.


    "Grace, even now, you''re still denying it?" He dropped a stack of papers right in front of her. “This is Alex''s full statement. He spelled out exactly how you found him, how you got Seth to stage the ident, how you threatened Alex to keep quiet afterward."


    He pushed another report across the table. "This is the forensic analysis from the crash. Every mark matches exactly what Alex described."


    He tossed down another pile, this time bank records. "And here are your transfers to Alex. Every payment, every detail, right here.


    "You say Alex and Reese framed you. So how do you exin these money trails? Did you really think running the cash through offshore ounts would hide it from us?"


    Grace stared at the pages, her body trembling harder with each second.


    She never dreamed they''d dig up all this. When did Reese start suspecting her? How did ite to this?


    "No... this can''t be..." Grace shook her head, her gaze falling apart as her voice faded.


    "You know the truth better than anyone," Roman said, his tone hard. "You bribed Alex. You nned the ident. You tried to kill Marie. It''s all right here. We''ve already sent everything to the prosecutor. You''ll be waiting for your trial from a holding cell."


    Grace just copsed, all her fight gone. She knew there was no way out now. The evidence spoke for itself.


    "So what if I did it?" she spat, her voice raw with anger. "Why did Marie get to marry into the Meyer family?"


    Roman''s eyes narrowed as the pieces fell into ce. "Tell us. What really happened?"


    Grace took a shaky breath. “Years ago, Bailey and I... spent a night together. I got pregnant."


    "Marie found out, left Bailey, and walked away from the Meyer family with Reese." She paused, her eyes burning with bitterness. "She left, but then she said she''d talk things over with Bailey."


    "How could I just sit back and watch them get back together? Was I supposed to let my daughter be branded illegitimate forever?


    "So I went to Alex. I paid him a fortune to stage an ident... to get rid of Marie."


    Sheid out every detail. How she nned it all, how she told Alex exactly what to do, how she


    threatened him afterward vel


    the secret buried.  fo


    All these years, the guilt had pressed down on her, crushing her. Now that it was out, she felt a weird sense of retret, but it only deepened her despair.


    Roman listened and the clerk wrote down every word.


    When she finished, Roman slid the transcript over to her for her signature.


    Grace stared at the confession, her hands shaking so badly she could barely grip the pen, but she slowly signed her name, letter by letter.


    As soon as she finished, all the strength drained from her. She sank into the chair, her eyes empty as silent tears slid down her face.