Chapter 2
Robert did not shout.
That made the room colder.
He held one hand up, stopping Evelyn before she reached my phone.
“Don’t touch her.”
Evelyn’s mouth opened.
Nothing came out.
The recording kept playing.
Her voice came next.
“I told you, Martin, Robert won’t suspect anything. He still thinks the missing money is Daniel’s bad investment.”
Robert’s face changed.
Not just betrayal.
Recognition.
Martin.
His best friend.
His business partner.
The man who had eaten at their table for twenty years.
Daniel stepped forward.
“Mom, what is this?”
Evelyn snapped, “Turn that off!”
I raised the volume.
Martin’s voice filled the room.
“Once Robert signs the revised trust, Daniel gets control, and Emily can be blamed for the cash. Nobody will believe a daughter-in-law over you.”
My hands shook.
I had known about the affair.
I had not known about the trust.
Robert turned slowly toward Daniel.
“You knew?”
Daniel’s face went pale.
“I didn’t know about Martin.”
That was not no.
Robert heard it too.
Evelyn grabbed Daniel’s arm.
“Say nothing.”
I laughed again, but there was no humor in it.
“You let your mother drag me across the floor because you thought I stole money you knew was already gone?”
Daniel looked at me.
“Emily, you don’t understand.”
“No,” I said. “I understand perfectly.”
Robert held out his hand.
“The phone.”
I hesitated.
Then handed it to him.
He listened as the recording continued.
Evelyn and Martin discussed forged checks.
A revised will.
A doctor willing to declare Robert confused.
And me.
“She’s useful,” Evelyn said on the recording. “If anything goes wrong, we blame Emily. She has no family here.”
The words hit me harder than her slap.
No family here.
Robert lowered the phone.
Then looked at everyone in the room.
“Who else knew?”
Silence.
His brother looked away.
Daniel’s sister started crying.
Daniel stared at the carpet.
Robert whispered, “My God.”
Then Evelyn straightened.
“You would believe her over your wife?”
May you like
Robert looked at my bleeding lip.
“I believe what I just heard.”
