Chapter 16 - THE AUDIO
Laura wrote 1,842 words.
I read the first seven and had to stop.
Ethan, I have spent too long calling secrecy protection.
For eighteen months, I had imagined all the things Laura might have said if she had known she was going to die. I love you. Take care of Maisie. Don’t blame yourself. None of them prepared me for the truth.
She told me about Northcrest.
Everything.
How she discovered suspicious invoices during the sale. How she delayed reporting them because employee payouts depended on closing. How she convinced herself she could recover the money privately without destroying people who had done nothing wrong. How that decision made her vulnerable.
I should have told you immediately. I didn’t because I was ashamed, and then the longer I waited, the more shame became another reason to wait.
I pressed my fist against my mouth.
Laura continued.
Corinne had recognized that shame.
Used it.
Threatened to tell me Laura had concealed financial misconduct unless Laura stopped pursuing Northcrest.
And Laura had been terrified of what I would think.
Then came the sentence that ruined me.
I loved your certainty about me more than I loved giving you the chance to know the imperfect truth.
I cried.
Not quietly.
Not beautifully.
I put the phone down and bent forward until my forehead touched my hands.
The woman I had spent eighteen months turning into a perfect dead wife had been afraid I would stop loving her if I knew she had made a bad decision.
I wished I could be angry with her.
I was.
I wished I could tell her she had been wrong.
She had.
I wished she were alive so we could have the ugly fight she had been so afraid of.
That was the part death stole.
Not perfection.
The chance to survive disappointment together.
I continued reading.
Laura planned to tell me everything that night.
On Monday, she intended to send the complete Northcrest file to regulators.
Bank records.
Invoices.
Corinne’s messages.
The parking-garage recording.
If Laura told me first, Corinne lost her leverage.
If Laura reported Northcrest, Corinne risked criminal exposure and career destruction.
And then Laura wrote about Maisie.
Corinne has begun asking who controls Maisie’s assets if something happens to us. I may be overreacting. I hope I am. But I will not gamble with our daughter.
The protective filing.
The hidden cabinet.
Bellmere.
The backups.
Laura had not predicted her death.
She had simply realized Corinne was escalating and finally stopped trusting the idea that everything would resolve itself.
Her last paragraph read:
If you’re angry with me, be angry. Please. Just don’t mistake my shame for lack of love.
I sat alone for an hour after finishing.
Then Anna came in.
“She told me she needed to tell you something,” she whispered.
“I know.”
“I should’ve pushed her.”
“No.”
Anna looked surprised.
I shook my head.
“We’re done doing that.”
“Doing what?”
“Pretending we had powers we didn’t have.”
If I had called.
If Anna had pushed.
If Laura stayed home.
If it didn’t rain.
If I had known Corinne.
Grief could build an infinite number of doors to worlds that never existed.
I was tired of opening them.
That afternoon, the prosecutor called.
Charges were being prepared.
Not intentional murder.
The evidence could not prove Corinne deliberately meant to kill Laura.
Reckless vehicular conduct resulting in death.
Leaving the scene.
Evidence tampering.
Obstruction.
Financial offenses.
Separate allegations involving Maisie.
“Are you disappointed?” Rachel asked after I hung up.
I thought about it.
“No.”
“You’re sure?”
“I don’t need the biggest word.”
“What do you need?”
I looked at Laura’s email.
“The right one.”
Then Rachel’s phone rang.
She listened.
Her face changed.
“What?”
May you like
She covered the receiver.
“Corinne’s surrendering tomorrow morning.”
