Chapter 9 - Her Own Voice
Adrian obtained the recording through counsel. Lauren listened in his office with both feet pressed flat against the floor.
First came Cole's voice, patient and warm.
“Just explain what you reviewed.”
Then hers.
“I don't know if any of this is true.”
“You saw the papers.”
“I saw what you showed me. That's different.”
A chair scraped.
“Your father's organization is already under investigation, Lauren. Do you want his last months spent answering questions about money he didn't take?”
Silence.
Then Lauren again, smaller.
“Tell me what I need to say.”
Adrian stopped the recording.
She stared at the speaker.
“That's worse than I remembered.”
“It shows pressure. It also shows you understood the difference between knowing and repeating.”
“Can it help Daniel?”
“Potentially. It may hurt you. We need to discuss both before approaching investigators.”
They did. For nearly two hours.
Lauren asked about her children, about the old statement, about what cooperation could and could not change. Adrian promised no outcome he couldn't control.
Finally, she looked at the paused waveform on his screen.
“I want to correct the record. Properly. With you there.”
That afternoon, she called Daniel.
“There was a recording,” she said. “My lawyer has it. Yours will hear it.”
“I know. He called me.”
“I don't want you to hear it and think I'm still hiding.”
Daniel didn't speak for a while.
“I appreciate the call.”
Nothing more. She accepted that.
At the temporary apartment, she found a voicemail from Cole.
“We can end this. Sign the sale consent and tell the court you overreacted. I'll restore the account. We can work out custody quietly.”
She listened once, saved it, and sent it to Maya.
Then she washed bottles.
There was no triumphant music. No sudden feeling of power.
Only warm water, a crying baby, and a choice she hadn't handed back to him.
Near nine, Sierra's lawyer contacted Adrian and Daniel's attorney.
Their client had preserved an email archive containing instructions about Northlight.
There was one problem.
May you like
Cole had just told Sierra to surrender her laptop that night.
And he was already downstairs.
