Chapter 14 - THE LAST RECORDING
A police officer moved first.
Victoria never saw him coming from the side of the boathouse.
He hit her arm.
The lighter flew into the water.
The black case dropped onto the dock.
Victoria screamed.
“No!”
Two officers restrained her.
“Let me go!”
Ethan stood completely still.
Victoria fought wildly.
“That belongs to me!”
An officer picked up the case.
“No, ma’am. It’s evidence now.”
Her face collapsed.
Maya walked onto the dock.
Victoria looked at her with pure hatred.
“You ruined everything.”
Maya stopped several feet away.
“No.”
Victoria laughed bitterly.
“You’re enjoying this.”
“I’m not.”
“Liar.”
Maya looked at the woman who had spent two years humiliating her.
The woman who planted a key in her purse.
Who built fake evidence.
Who nearly destroyed her wedding.
And strangely, Maya didn’t feel victorious.
She felt tired.
“You know what I wanted from you?” Maya asked.
Victoria stared.
“Nothing.”
Victoria frowned.
“I didn’t need your approval. I didn’t need your money. I didn’t need your house or your name.”
“Then why did you take Ethan?”
Maya’s expression changed.
“He isn’t something you own.”
Victoria’s mouth trembled.
“He was mine.”
Ethan closed his eyes.
Maya shook her head.
“That’s why you lost him.”
The police took Victoria away.
Richard watched the car disappear.
He looked smaller somehow.
Older.
The officer handed the black case to an evidence technician.
“What’s on the recorder?” Ethan asked.
“We’ll determine that.”
Daniel Price provided his recordings to police that afternoon.
The hotel turned over its footage.
The fake ID was recovered from Victoria’s purse when she was arrested.
The fire investigator found evidence that the Langford Estate fire had been deliberately set.
By evening, Victoria faced multiple serious allegations.
Fraud.
Forgery.
Identity theft.
Arson.
Attempted poisoning conspiracy remained under investigation.
But the strangest evidence came from the recorder in the black case.
Police allowed Ethan’s attorney to hear a copy after its contents were logged.
The recording was twelve years old.
Victoria’s voice.
And another woman.
Ethan listened in his lawyer’s office with Maya beside him.
The unknown woman said:
“You can’t keep hiding this.”
Victoria responded:
“I can if everybody keeps their mouth shut.”
“What happens when Ethan finds Rebecca’s papers?”
“He won’t.”
“And the trust?”
“I moved enough around that Richard will never notice.”
The woman lowered her voice.
“You forged signatures.”
Victoria answered:
“I did what I had to do for my family.”
Then came silence.
The other woman said:
“Your family? Or yourself?”
The recording ended.
Ethan sat motionless.
Maya held his hand.
“Who was the other woman?” she asked.
The attorney looked at the evidence summary.
“Patricia Hale.”
Ethan frowned.
“Hale?”
“Rebecca’s sister.”
Ethan stopped breathing.
“My aunt?”
“She’s alive.”
Maya squeezed his hand.
“Where?”
The attorney looked at him.
“Arizona.”
Ethan stared at the wall.
Thirty-one years of lies.
And somewhere across the country, part of his real family had been alive the entire time.
The attorney slid a phone number across the desk.
“She’s been waiting a very long time to hear from you.”
Ethan stared at the number.
Then at Maya.
“What do I even say?”
Maya gave him a tired smile.
“Start with hello.”
He picked up the phone.
His hand shook as he dialed.
A woman answered after three rings.
“Hello?”
Ethan couldn’t speak.
Maya squeezed his hand again.
He swallowed.
“My name is Ethan Brooks.”
Silence.
Then a soft gasp.
The woman whispered:
“Ethan?”
His eyes filled with tears.
“Yes.”
Patricia began crying.
“Oh, sweetheart. We’ve been looking for you for thirty years.”
And suddenly Ethan realized one more truth.
May you like
Victoria hadn’t only hidden his past.
She had stolen an entire family from him.
