Chapter 9 - Grant Had Used Elise Because Audrey Would Trust Her Drink
One question bothered investigators.
Why involve Elise at all?
Grant had access to Audrey.
They lived together.
He could have attempted to drug her himself.
But Grant needed one thing he could not guarantee.
Audrey had started distrusting him.
Their marriage had deteriorated over money.
She checked drinks he poured.
Refused medication he suggested.
Had even begun asking for separate access to business accounts.
Elise, however, remained her sister.
Audrey accepted a cocktail from her without thinking.
Grant understood that.
He exploited one relationship to destroy another.
He also believed Elise would be easier to control afterward.
She needed his money.
Was emotionally unstable from her divorce.
Had already been conditioned to believe Audrey planned to abandon her.
Grant gradually told Elise that Audrey was going to destroy all three of them financially.
Then offered himself as the only person capable of preventing it.
The life insurance would:
Save Grant’s business.
Keep the Charleston house.
Pay Elise’s legal expenses.
Prevent what he called “total family collapse.”
Elise eventually admitted she had begun seeing Audrey not as her sister but as the person standing between everyone else and safety.
That did not happen because Audrey became cruel.
It happened because Grant spent months feeding Elise a distorted version of her.
And Elise chose to believe him.
At some point, manipulation stops being a defense.
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Adults remain responsible for the harm they knowingly help create.
Elise crossed that line long before Audrey opened her eyes.
