Chapter 16 - THE RECORDING THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING
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Dorian was treated at the hospital and released the following morning with his arm in a sling.
I stayed in the waiting room until the doctor confirmed that the bullet had passed through his shoulder without striking bone. When Dorian emerged, pale and exhausted, he found me staring at the floor.
"You're allowed to be angry with me," he said.
I looked up.
"That isn't what I'm feeling right now."
"What is it?"
"Fear. Because every time I think we've reached the truth, another secret appears."
He sat beside me.
"I can't undo what I did."
"No. You can't."
"But I can stop protecting the people who did it."
I studied his face.
"Then start by telling the police everything you know."
He nodded.
"I will."
It was a small promise, but it was the first one that didn't ask me to trust him blindly.
Later that afternoon, Blythe arrived with a laptop and a small memory card.
"I found the recording," she said.
Catherine sat beside her, holding her daughter's hand.
"Where was it?"
"In a storage locker registered under my mother's name. She left instructions that it should only be opened if Evelyn returned."
Blythe inserted the card.
A woman's voice filled the room.
It was Evelyn's.
"If you're listening to this, Catherine has failed to keep her mouth shut, and the Kincaid family is facing exposure."
A second voice answered.
Marcus Vale.
"You promised me the company."
"And you will have it when the legal transfer is complete."
"What about Audra?"
"She will never know the truth."
Marcus laughed.
"And Dorian?"
"He's sentimental. He can be controlled through his wife."
I felt sick.
The recording continued.
Then came a third voice.
A woman's voice I had not heard in years.
My mother's.
"You cannot keep doing this. The money belongs to the people you stole it from."
Evelyn answered coldly.
"Then perhaps you should have thought about that before you married into a family that doesn't forgive betrayal."
A chair scraped.
My mother spoke again.
"If anything happens to me, Audra will find the ledger. She will know what you did."
Evelyn's response was chilling.
"Then we will make sure she never gets the chance."
The recording ended abruptly.
Nobody spoke.
Catherine began to cry.
Dorian stared at the laptop, his jaw clenched so tightly that I could see the muscles working.
"She knew," he whispered. "My mother knew what Victor had done. She continued it after his death."
Blythe nodded.
"And Marcus helped her."
I looked at the detective.
"Is this enough to arrest Evelyn?"
"Enough to justify an investigation. We'll need to authenticate the recording and connect it to the financial evidence."
"Then do it."
He closed the laptop carefully.
"We will."
For the first time, I believed the truth might survive long enough to matter.
Then the detective's phone rang.
He listened, his expression changing with every second.
When he ended the call, he looked at us.
"Marcus Vale has agreed to testify."
I exhaled.
"Good."
"There's one condition."
"What?"
"He wants immunity for a crime we haven't uncovered yet."
Dorian frowned.
"What crime?"
The detective looked at me.
"According to Marcus, the Kincaid family has been hiding a second identity for someone who officially died years ago."
My stomach tightened.
"Who?"
May you like
The detective opened his notebook.
"Your mother."
