Chapter 12 - Nora’s Voice
Hearing my dead wife’s voice after six years nearly broke me.
The recording began with static.
Then Nora spoke.
“If this works, Adam will hear it someday.”
Leo grabbed my hand.
I held on.
Nora sounded tired.
Scared.
But steady.
“I found the Kincaid trust eight months ago. At first, I thought Samuel was stealing from it. He was. But Samuel wasn’t making the decisions.”
I closed my eyes.
“It was Eleanor.”
My mother.
Leo’s grandmother.
“Nora…” I whispered.
The recording continued.
“Eleanor used Samuel’s company to move money because Mercer Holdings was failing.”
Rachel looked at me.
That part made sense.
Six years earlier, our family company had nearly collapsed after a disastrous real estate deal.
Then, suddenly, my father announced a private capital injection.
Nobody knew where the money came from.
Now I knew.
From my son.
Nora continued.
“Daniel discovered the theft first. He threatened to expose them. Eleanor and Samuel staged his death after Daniel agreed to disappear in exchange for protection.”
I stared at the speaker.
Daniel had not been innocent.
But he had not been the mastermind either.
“He later began helping them move money. I believe he thought he could eventually take control of the trust himself.”
That sounded like my brother.
Always believing he was the smartest man in the room.
Then Nora’s voice changed.
“The night I confronted Eleanor, she told me something I need Adam to know.”
A pause.
“If anything happens to me, it was not an accident.”
Leo’s fingers tightened around mine.
I stopped the recording.
“I can’t.”
He looked up.
“Dad.”
“I can’t listen to her say this.”
“We have to.”
My twelve-year-old son sounded stronger than I felt.
I pressed play.
Nora continued.
“She said if I exposed the trust, she would make sure Adam lost Leo. She already had forged paternity records prepared. Daniel helped create them.”
I thought of the fake birth certificate.
Everything had been planned.
“She said she could make Adam believe Leo was Daniel’s child. She said grief would do the rest.”
I felt physically sick.
Then came the sentence that destroyed the last part of me still hoping my mother was only guilty of theft.
“Eleanor knows I’m driving to Vermont tomorrow.”
My heart stopped.
Nora’s accident had happened on the Vermont road.
“She knows the route.”
Rachel whispered, “Oh my God.”
The recording ended with Nora saying:
“I love you, Adam. Whatever happens, believe Leo. Protect him. And never let anyone convince you that blood matters more than love.”
Silence filled the lighthouse.
Leo was crying now.
So was I.
Marcus turned away.
Rachel removed the hard drive from the box.
“This could reopen Nora’s death investigation.”
“It will.”
My phone rang.
Unknown number.
I answered.
No one spoke.
Then I heard breathing.
“Who is this?”
A man finally answered.
A voice I had not heard in eight years.
“Little brother.”
Every hair on my arms rose.
“Daniel.”
Leo looked at me.
Daniel laughed quietly.
“So you finally found the lighthouse.”
“Where are you?”
“Close enough.”
“You helped them.”
“I did.”
“You helped destroy my son.”
A long pause.
Then Daniel said something I wasn’t expecting.
“If you want Eleanor alive long enough to confess, get to her house now.”
“What?”
“She knows you found Nora’s recording.”
May you like
My heart slammed against my ribs.
“And she’s not planning to be there when the police arrive.”
