Chapter 13 - The Last Lie Margaret Could Tell
Caroline had died in a car accident.
That was what everyone believed.
Daniel was seventeen.
Rainy night.
Single-car crash.
No witnesses.
At least, that was the official version.
Margaret’s threat changed everything.
Daniel hired a private investigator.
Richard contacted the attorney who had handled Caroline’s estate.
I focused on staying calm for my baby.
That lasted about twelve hours.
Then Daniel called.
“We found something.”
I met him at Sarah’s office.
He placed an old police report on the table.
Caroline’s car had gone off a rural road outside Worcester.
The report mentioned brake failure.
The repair shop later concluded a brake line had been damaged.
Not worn out.
Damaged.
“Was it investigated?” I asked.
“Briefly.”
“Why briefly?”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
“Because somebody told police Caroline had been suicidal.”
I stared.
“Who?”
He slid a witness statement toward me.
Margaret Hollis.
I felt cold.
Daniel sat back.
“She told police my mother had threatened to drive into a tree.”
“Did she?”
“No.”
“How do you know?”
“Because she was leaving town.”
He showed me another document.
A lease application.
Caroline had been moving to California.
She had a new job.
New apartment.
School records requested for Daniel.
She wasn’t planning to die.
She was planning to leave.
Richard walked in five minutes later.
When he saw the report, he sat down without speaking.
Daniel looked at him.
“Did you know about the brake line?”
“No.”
“Did Margaret?”
“I don’t know.”
“That means yes.”
“No. It means I don’t know.”
Daniel slammed his hand onto the table.
“You spent forty years not knowing!”
Richard didn’t defend himself.
That was probably the only reason Daniel didn’t walk out.
Sarah stepped in.
“We do not have evidence Margaret damaged the vehicle.”
Daniel laughed.
“She framed me for theft. Blackmailed Ethan. Helped manipulate a fertility procedure. Lied to police after my mother died.”
“All true,” Sarah said. “But suspicion is not evidence.”
Then my phone buzzed.
A message from Lauren.
CALL ME NOW.
I called.
She was crying.
“Emily, Mom knows about the investigation.”
“How?”
“I don’t know. She came to my house.”
“What happened?”
“She said I had to choose.”
“Choose what?”
“Her or all of you.”
I closed my eyes.
“Lauren.”
“I told her to leave.”
Then her voice dropped.
“She left something behind.”
“What?”
“A key.”
Richard looked up.
I put the call on speaker.
Lauren continued.
“It fell out of her purse. Dad, it has your old office tag on it.”
Richard frowned.
“My old office?”
“The one on Commonwealth Avenue.”
He went pale.
That office had been closed for fifteen years.
Richard still owned the building.
We went there with Sarah and the private investigator.
The key opened a locked metal cabinet in the basement storage room.
Inside were boxes.
Old tax returns.
Photographs.
Legal correspondence.
And one small cassette recorder.
Daniel picked it up.
A label was taped to the side.
CAROLINE - 2007.
There was also a mini cassette.
The investigator found an old recorder online and had it delivered that evening.
We sat in Sarah’s office.
Daniel pressed play.
Static.
Then Caroline’s voice.
Older than in the photographs.
Tired.
Afraid.
“If anything happens to me, Margaret knows Daniel is Thomas’s son.”
Daniel stopped breathing.
Caroline continued.
“She told me if I ever tell Daniel, she will ruin him. She says Thomas’s trust must never go to an illegitimate child.”
I looked at Sarah.
Her face had gone still.
Then Caroline said something worse.
“Margaret came to my house tonight. She said accidents happen to people who won’t leave families alone.”
The tape clicked.
Another voice appeared.
Margaret.
Clear as day.
“You take that boy and disappear, Caroline.”
Then Caroline:
“Or what?”
A pause.
May you like
Then Margaret’s voice.
“Or I’ll make sure neither of you has anything left to inherit.”
