Chapter 7 - The Deleted Audio

We listened in the mansion library.

The same room Nathan had claimed he entered during the missing minutes.

Detective Ortiz connected the recovered file to a small evidence speaker. Richard’s attorney arrived just in time to tell everyone not to answer questions.

Nobody listened to him either.

The audio began with wind and the sound of my heels on stone.

Then my own voice.

“Nathan?”

Footsteps.

Victoria: “She came alone.”

A man: “Good.”

Richard.

My breathing changed on the recording.

I remembered turning toward the driveway and seeing Victoria beside the SUV.

Then another voice.

Nathan.

“Mom, hurry.”

My chest tightened.

But the next line changed everything.

Nathan again: “Get inside. Emma’s coming.”

A door slammed.

Then Nathan’s footsteps moved away from me, not toward me.

He had been warning his mother that I was approaching.

Why?

Victoria said, “You should have handled him first.”

Richard answered, “Nathan won’t do anything.”

Then Victoria: “Caroline thought that too.”

Silence.

Richard: “Don’t say her name.”

A sharp sound followed, like someone slapping the side of the SUV.

Then my voice grew louder.

“Victoria?”

The recording picked up fabric movement, a gasp, my heel scraping stone.

I heard myself say, “Don’t touch me.”

Then Victoria: “You were supposed to sign tomorrow.”

“What?” I whispered on the recording.

“The merger authorization.”

“I’m not signing anything.”

A pause.

Then Richard’s voice, closer than before.

“You already did.”

My present-day body went cold.

On the recording, I said, “That’s impossible.”

Victoria: “Your signature is very easy to reproduce.”

Nathan cursed under his breath beside me.

Then came the shove.

My scream.

Rocks breaking loose.

And something no one in the room expected.

A fourth voice.

Male.

“You idiots. I said scare her, not kill her.”

Richard looked toward the speaker like it had exploded.

Ortiz paused the file.

“Who is that?”

No one answered.

I knew the voice.

It belonged to my company’s chief financial officer.

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My oldest friend.

Evan Cole.