Chapter 18 - The Truth on Every Screen

The room erupted.

Reporters shouted questions. Cameras turned toward Lena. Alexander stepped in front of her.

“That footage is edited,” he said.

A man in the back raised his voice. “Then why does it show her taking the document?”

“Because she was retrieving evidence.”

The screen changed again. This time it showed a bank transfer from an account in Lena’s name to a shell company connected to Peter.

Lena stared at the numbers. “I’ve never seen that account.”

Alexander’s lawyers began arguing with the event organizers. Marcus, still in the hospital, called to say Peter had hacked the estate’s security system.

Then Lena noticed something.

The music playing beneath the footage was the old waltz.

The same arrangement her mother had taught her.

She looked at the screen. “Turn up the audio.”

The sound technician hesitated.

“Do it,” Alexander ordered.

Beneath the melody was a faint click at regular intervals. Three clicks, a pause, two clicks. The code from the score.

Lena listened carefully. It was not a message. It was a recording of the original room, with the hidden camera’s audio still attached.

“Play it backward,” she said.

The technician did.

A voice emerged from the distorted sound.

Peter’s voice.

“Put her name on the transfer. They’ll believe anything if it comes from the maid.”

The room went silent.

The next voice was Victoria’s father, recorded years earlier.

“And if the girl asks about her mother?”

Peter answered, “Tell her she’s dead. It worked once.”

Lena faced the cameras.

“My name is Lena Carter. Fourteen years ago, my mother disappeared because she found evidence of crimes committed by powerful men. Tonight, I’m giving that evidence to the authorities.”

She placed the original ledger on the table.

Alexander stood beside her.

Then a uniformed federal agent walked through the doors.

“Peter Blake has been arrested,” he announced. “But there is one more person we need to speak to.”

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He looked directly at Alexander.

“Mr. Blake, your father’s old files show that you signed a transfer order the night Margaret Carter disappeared.”