Chapter 15 - The Voice That Wasn't Mine
They searched my apartment for four hours. Miriam watched. I wanted to scream. The original flash drive was secured in her office, where it had been since before graduation. The police took an old laptop and copied several drives under the warrant. They photographed my research notebooks and left with a receipt.
Maya and I sat on the kitchen floor after they were gone. "You've got to move," she said.
"I barely have money for groceries."
"Then you can stay with me."
"I already do. I just pay half the rent."
"You know what I mean. Somewhere he can't reach you."
The front door was still splintered near the lock, damaged before the officers arrived. Someone had broken in that morning. My framed photograph of Nora was missing. So was the letter Aunt Lillian had written on the back of it.
The search warrant named the flash drive. The break-in felt personal.
At six, Tessa called. "There's an audio clip going viral. Richard's people say it's you admitting you stole the records and made up the story about the fire."
She sent a link. I heard my own voice say, "I copied everything. I knew it was illegal. I made up the rest because I wanted the money."
The voice was close enough to mine that I felt my skin crawl. But the rhythm was wrong. I never spoke those sentences. Someone had built a confession out of my voice.
Tessa had already contacted an audio specialist. "Don't share it," she warned. "We need the original file and evidence of how it was made. A fake isn't proven just because we say it sounds fake."
Miriam gave the detective the records of Richard's threat and reported the break-in. Nobody promised a quick arrest.
That night I sat beside Maya on her couch, watching strangers call me a liar. It was the oldest trick in Richard's book: hurt me, then announce that I'd hurt him.
My phone rang. Ethan.
"I know where that audio came from," he said. "Dad paid a media consultant last week. I found the invoice."
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"Send it to Miriam."
"There's a bigger problem." His voice dropped. "Mom's gone to the police. She's saying the fire was her fault."
