Chapter 12 - The Voice On The Old Phone
Julian went home for the first time in two days.
Not to sleep.
To find Ava's old phone.
He had kept it in a cedar box with her wedding ring, handwritten recipes, and a scarf that still carried the faintest trace of her perfume.
The phone would not turn on.
Maya found a compatible charger in a junk drawer.
They waited in the kitchen while the screen slowly brightened.
There were thousands of photos.
Lily as a baby.
Julian asleep in a hospital chair.
Ava smiling with no hair, wearing a red baseball cap.
Julian almost stopped.
Then Maya said, "Look at the voice memos."
There were seven.
The last one was dated four days before Ava died.
Ava's voice filled the quiet kitchen.
"Julian, if you find this later, I need you to know I am not imagining things. Vivian changed my medication tray again. She says the labels were wrong, but I know what I take. I asked the agency to send someone else. Conrad told me not to make accusations without proof."
Julian gripped the edge of the counter.
The recording continued.
"I also found papers about my Mercer shares in Conrad's briefcase. He said they were routine drafts. They were not. They changed Lily's rights. I am going to call Rachel tomorrow. If I can't, please do it for me. And please keep Lily away from Vivian Grant. Something about her is wrong."
The memo ended.
No one spoke.
Julian's face had gone gray.
"I married her," he whispered. "Ava warned me, and I married her."
Maya wanted to tell him grief made people miss things. She wanted to tell him he could not rewrite the past.
But Lily entered the kitchen before she could.
She had been released into Julian's care under emergency protection orders. Dana had insisted Vivian could have no contact.
Lily held a folded drawing.
"Daddy, I remembered where Mommy hid the other paper."
Julian knelt.
"What paper?"
"The one she said Vivian could never find."
Lily pointed toward the old nursery.
Behind the wall panel where Ava had once hidden Christmas gifts, they found a sealed envelope.
May you like
On the front, Ava had written one sentence.
IF ANYTHING HAPPENS TO ME, OPEN THIS WITH THE POLICE PRESENT.
