Chapter 11 - Emily’s Last Warning
I read Emily’s message until the words blurred.
Five years.
For five years, that warning had existed.
And Victoria had kept it from me because grief had become anger.
“I could have known.”
Her face broke.
“I know.”
“Five years.”
“I know.”
“You watched me hire him as CFO.”
“I didn’t know what the message meant.”
“You could have asked.”
“You wouldn’t speak to me.”
“You told me I killed your daughter.”
Victoria looked down.
Neither of us was innocent in what grief had done afterward.
But only one person had benefited from our silence.
Julian.
Marcus restored deleted data from Emily’s old phone.
The results arrived overnight.
Emails.
Photos.
Bank screenshots.
A voice memo.
Emily’s voice filled my office.
“Nathan, if you’re hearing this, I probably chickened out again.”
My chest tightened.
“I think Julian has been moving money out of Mom’s trust and mine.”
“I found fees that don’t make sense.”
“When I asked him, he got angry.”
“He said I was confused.”
“He said grief after Maya’s birth was making me paranoid.”
I closed my eyes.
The pattern.
Always the same.
Make the victim doubt herself.
Create medical questions.
Call her unstable.
Then control the money.
Emily continued.
“I’m meeting an auditor Friday.”
“I haven’t told Julian who.”
The recording stopped.
She died Thursday night.
The day before the audit.
Detective Ruiz reopened questions surrounding the accident.
The original truck had been reported stolen.
The driver vanished.
But a traffic camera captured a partial plate.
Technology had improved since then.
A new search connected the plate to a vehicle purchased with cash by a shell company.
Who created the company?
Franklin Voss.
Julian’s brother.
My skin went cold.
“This means they killed her.”
Ruiz did not answer immediately.
“It means we have enough to investigate that possibility.”
I looked at Maya through the office window.
She was sitting at the kitchen table doing math homework.
Noah slept nearby.
My daughter had spent years believing her mother died randomly.
I did not know if telling her the truth would help or destroy something inside her.
Rebecca put a hand on my desk.
“We do this carefully.”
Before I could answer, Marcus entered.
“We found Julian.”
“Where?”
“He used a company vehicle at 4:18 this morning.”
“Location?”
“A private airfield outside Newark.”
Ruiz immediately called federal authorities.
The plane had filed a flight plan to the Cayman Islands.
Departure scheduled in forty minutes.
Then Marcus shook his head.
“That’s not the problem.”
“What is?”
“The plane belongs to Bellweather.”
“So?”
“Passenger manifest lists three names.”
“Julian?”
“Yes.”
“Isabella?”
“Yes.”
My stomach tightened.
“Third?”
Marcus turned the tablet.
Noah Voss.
I looked toward the nursery.
May you like
Noah was gone.
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