<h4>Chapter 374: Marianne Thomas</h4>


    "What? She came to you and asked you to directly plot Mnie’s murder?" Marianne asked in amusement as her ’driver’


    "Yes," he said, leaning back slightly as he sent her a look from the mirror, his voice low but tinged with something close to amusement. "But that isn’t even the most interesting part." He let the pause hang before adding slowly, "The most interesting part is that she insists on doing it herself... and she’s not entirely sure who the final target will be Mnie or Melody."


    Marianne’s eyebrow arched slowly at that. "You mean," she said, her tone sharpening with curiosity, "she hasn’t decided whether she wants to be Mnie... or be Melody?"


    He gave a short hum of agreement. "Exactly. I still don’t understand how you managed to make her this obsessive. It’s not just jealousy anymore-it’s as if she’s built her entire identity around rivalry for love."


    Marianne’s lips curved, but it wasn’t a smile of warmth it was one of evil and quiet satisfaction. She turned her head toward her brother, instead of looking out of the window, "Careful maniption over the years. A little here, a little there. Nurturing her possessiveness. Sharpening her jealous streak. Making sure she learned that affection was a prize she had to fight for... and that losing meant being nothing. Eventually, I knew I’d have my way."


    Her brother gave a dry scoff. "Wouldn’t it have been simpler to just torture her the way you’d nned for Mnie?"


    Marianne’s head tilted slowly, her gaze momentarily distant. "No. I couldn’t," she murmured. "Not with Melody. With Mnie, yes-I could afford to break her openly. I had my methods for that."


    His eyes narrowed. "Methods?"


    A faint smile tugged at her lips again. "For Mnie. I used to lock her in the elevator. I’d stop it between floors so she’d be trapped in the dark, listening to the creaks of the cables. And when the panic set in, I’d tell her it was her father’s doing-that he had stopped it because she’d been naughty or troublesome for him. I made sure that it happened just after she had seen him. And he was never around tofort her.


    Her brother’s expression flickered, torn between disbelief and a reluctant fascination as he heard the story for the first time. He had not been ’employed’ until then.


    "That, is how a little girl learnt to fear her own father. By the time she was barely old enough to understand what punishment meant, Mnie was already having panic attacks at the sight of him. I didn’t need to lift a hand to hit her. I let her mind do the work."


    She tapped her fingers lightly against the arm of her chair, her tone almost conversational. "But then... that old woman intervened. She used me of torturing the child. Richard defended me, believed that the old woman was just exaggerating, but it didn’t matter. I could see it in his eyes. The seed of suspicion had been nted. If Melody ever started showing the same kind of fear... the same panic... he would start to wonder."


    Her brother frowned. "So that’s why you didn’t repeat the same tricks with Melody."


    Marianne nodded. "Exactly. I couldn’t risk it. Especially after Mnie was taken away by that interfering woman. Richard might have let it go on the surface, but I knew... deep down, there was a barrier. Even now, after all these years, a part of him is still guarded with me because of Mnie. So with Melody, I had to be careful- more careful than I’ve ever been with anyone."


    She leaned forward slightly, her voice dropping lower, as if confiding a precious secret. "It was slower work. Subtle. No panic attacks, no visible fear. Instead, I gave her the taste of control and then took it away. I made her think her worth depended entirely on keeping someone’s attention. I let her believe love could be stolen and possessed... and that she had to be the one to steal it before it was stolen from her."


    Her brother studied her with a mix of admiration and caution. "So all this time, you’ve been shaping her and molding her into something even more dangerous."


    "Exactly," Marianne said, satisfaction threading her voice. "If I’d broken her the way I did Mnie, she’d be useless to me now. But this... this uncertainty she has about whether she wants to rece Mnie or destroy her? That’s the perfect storm. It will eat her alive until she makes her choice-and when she does, it won’t matter who survives. Either way, I win."


    She sat back, her expression cooling, but the faintest glimmer of triumph still lingered in her eyes. "Melody doesn’t even realise that she’s chasing an identity I created for her. She thinks she’s acting on her own. But every choice she makes, every thought she has, has been nted, watered, and nurtured by me. And now, she’s exactly where I want her to be- dangerous, desperate, and unpredictable."


    "And Mnie?" he asked finally.


    Marianne’s gaze sharpened. "Mnie will either die... or wish she had. Either way, once they are both gone, I will be at ease."


    "Why do you need them gone to be at ease, is what I do not understand, Marianne. I mean, it was a stroke of luck that you became a nurse for Melrose Thomas and then eventually became Richard Thomas’ wife. But there are so many other step mothers in the world. Not everyone wants to get rid of their step children."


    "Because of Richard Thomas. When he married me, he stipted that I would have children because he didn’t want his daughters to feel any bias. In all these years, not once has he changed his stance. But how can I live with that? Now that the girls are finally going to be out of the way, I will convince him to have children. At this age, so depressed and living with the fact that one of his daughters killed his other daughter, he will give in... And that would be my final sess."