Chapter 6: The Woman in the Original Recording
Detective Harris placed the photograph beneath a desk lamp.
Nobody spoke for several seconds.
Marcus stared at his father's smiling face, then at the shadowed figure behind him.
“My uncle was at the mansion that night,” he said.
“My mother told me he was out of state.””
Richard, who had returned to the conference room under escort, studied the photograph.
“She told you that because Peter wasn't supposed to be there.””
Emma looked at him.
“Why not?””
“Because Daniel had discovered that Peter was signing transfers using a dormant company account. The money was being moved through shell companies and then returned to accounts controlled by people inside the family.””
Marcus's voice dropped.
“My father knew?””
“He confronted Peter. Victoria intervened before the argument could become public.””
“Did she protect Peter?””
Richard nodded.
“She said the family would be destroyed if the accounts became public. Daniel refused to cooperate.””
Marcus pushed away from the table.
“And you were there?””
“I arrived after the confrontation began.””
“What happened next?””
Richard's face tightened.
“I heard shouting from Daniel's study. When I entered, your father was on the floor. Peter was standing near the desk, and Victoria was holding a phone.””
Emma felt the air leave her lungs.
“Was Daniel alive?””
“Yes.””
Richard closed his eyes.
“He was conscious. He looked at me and tried to speak. I went to help him, but Peter blocked the doorway.””
Marcus's hands curled into fists.
“What did he say?””
“He told me that if I touched Daniel, I'd be arrested for attacking him. Victoria said the same thing. They claimed Daniel had fallen during an argument.””
“You believed them?””
“No.”” Richard looked directly at Marcus.
“I tried to get past Peter. He threatened to accuse me of stealing the ledger and assaulting your father. Then Victoria told me she'd make sure Emma and her mother were implicated if I didn't leave.””
Emma felt a dull ache in her chest.
“You left Dad there?””
Richard's eyes filled with tears.
“I was young enough to think I could save you by disappearing. I was wrong about what that would cost.””
Marcus turned away, breathing hard.
“So my father was alive, and you walked out.””
“I was threatened. I was frightened. And I made a decision I have regretted every day since.””
“Did you call for help?””
“I tried to use the phone in the hall. Peter took it from me.””
Detective Harris interrupted.
“Mr. Vance, did you witness Peter Cross physically assault Daniel?””
Richard hesitated.
“I saw Peter shove him during the argument. I didn't see the fall itself.””
“Then you cannot say what caused the fatal injuries.””
“No,” Richard admitted.
“But I know Victoria controlled the story afterward.””
Marcus slammed his palm against the wall.
“Twenty years. Twenty years of lies.””
Emma approached him carefully.
“Marcus.””
He shook his head.
“Don't tell me to calm down.””
“I wasn't going to.””
He turned toward her.
She placed her hand against his chest.
“Your father deserves the truth. So does mine. We can't get either one back by letting them turn us against each other.””
His eyes were bright with anger.
“What if they already have?””
Emma held his gaze.
“Then we prove them wrong.””
Detective Harris returned to the evidence bag.
“The digital forensics team has restored the longer audio file. We can play it now, but I need everyone to understand that this is preliminary evidence. We still have to establish authenticity.””
Marcus nodded.
“Play it.””
Harris connected a secure speaker to his laptop.
At first, there was only static.
Then Daniel Cross's voice emerged, low and strained.
“Victoria, the transfers are real. Peter signed them. You approved them. If the board sees these records, they'll know where the money went.””
A woman's voice answered.
“Lower your voice.””
“I'm not lowering anything. Those accounts belong to the company.””
“They belong to the people who built it.””
“That's not how ownership works.””
A chair scraped.
Daniel continued.
“Richard has copies of the ledger. He knows what you've done.””
Victoria laughed softly.
“Richard knows numbers. He doesn't understand power.””
Marcus stared at the speaker.
Emma could almost see the scene in her mind: Daniel standing behind his desk, papers scattered across the polished wood, Victoria moving calmly around the room as if the confrontation were an inconvenience she had already planned to resolve.
Then Daniel spoke again.
“If anything happens to me, Marcus will know everything.””
The audio crackled.
Victoria's voice returned, quieter now.
“Your son will never know what you were really like.””
“Don't bring Marcus into this.””
“Then sign the amended statement.””
“No.””
A sharp impact followed.
Emma flinched.
Marcus stepped toward the speaker.
“Dad?””
The recording continued.
Daniel was breathing heavily.
“Richard, please. Get Marcus out of here.””
Richard's voice entered the audio.
“I can't leave you.””
“Take the ledger. Go.””
Then another voice spoke.
Peter Cross.
“You're not going anywhere.””
A struggle followed, muffled by static.
Then came a sound like a chair falling.
Daniel groaned.
Victoria spoke again, her voice cold and precise.
“Peter, move away from him.””
Marcus stopped breathing.
For one second, it sounded as though Victoria was trying to protect his father.
Then she continued.
“Don't leave your fingerprints on anything else.””
The recording ended.
Nobody moved.
Marcus stared at the laptop.
“Play that last part again.””
Harris replayed the final seconds.
Don't leave your fingerprints on anything else.
Marcus sat down slowly.
“She knew.””
Richard nodded.
“She knew what Peter had done.””
“Then why wasn't she charged?””
“Because the official recording submitted after Daniel's death was different. It made the argument sound like a confrontation between Daniel and me. It contained a fabricated confession.””
Emma looked at the evidence bag.
“And the second phone has that version?””
“Yes,” Harris said.
“The file on the second phone appears to be the altered recording.””
Marcus rubbed his face.
“My mother has been using my father's death to control me.””
“She may also have been protecting someone,” Emma said.
He looked at her.
“Peter.””
“Maybe. But why threaten me with the vial? Why involve me in this now?””
Richard's expression darkened.
“Because she realized someone had found the ledger.””
A knock interrupted them.
An investigator entered and handed Harris a note.
Harris read it, then looked at Marcus.
“Your mother has requested legal representation. She refuses to answer questions about the pool incident.””
“Of course she does.””
“There's something else. Peter Cross has left his home. His security detail says he departed about forty minutes ago and hasn't returned.””
Marcus stood.
“Where is he?””
“We don't know.””
Emma's phone vibrated again.
Another unknown number.
This time, the message contained a short audio clip.
She pressed play.
Her father's voice emerged.
“If you're hearing this, Emma, I failed to protect you. Don't trust the ledger until you find the original signature page. Victoria didn't authorize every transfer. Someone forged her approval, and she spent years trying to discover who did it.””
The recording ended with a faint mechanical click.
Emma replayed it.
Marcus looked at Richard.
“Is that your voice?””
Richard shook his head.
“No. That's a message I recorded for Emma years ago. I never sent it.””
Emma's fingers trembled.
“Then who has it?””
Richard leaned toward the phone.
“The person who stole my backup files.””
Harris immediately took the device and instructed the digital team to preserve the message.
But Emma was already thinking about the photograph, the vial, and the name that had haunted the Cross family for two decades.
Victoria had lied about the recording.
She had concealed the ledger.
She had watched Emma struggle beneath the pool cover.
Yet now a message claimed someone had forged Victoria's approval on the transfers.
If that was true, the woman who threatened Emma might also have been protecting herself from someone more dangerous.
Marcus looked at Emma.
“Do you believe her?””
Emma shook her head.
“I believe someone wants us to think she's innocent.””
Richard's face turned pale.
“There's one page I never told you about.””
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a folded photograph he had kept hidden inside his wallet.
It showed a ledger page covered in handwritten signatures.
Three names appeared at the bottom.
Daniel Cross.
Richard Vance.
Victoria Cross.
But beside Victoria's signature was a fourth mark, faintly visible beneath the ink.
Emma leaned closer.
It was a fingerprint.
Detective Harris took the photograph and examined it under the desk lamp.
Then he looked up.
“That isn't Victoria's fingerprint.””
Marcus stared at him.
“Whose is it?””
Harris turned the photograph around.
The name beneath the fingerprint was written in Daniel's own handwriting.
May you like
*Marcus Cross.*
And according to the date on the page, the signature had been recorded three months before Marcus turned eighteen.
