Chapter 11 - Noah
For ten minutes, I couldn’t speak.
The cruelty of it was so calculated that I almost admired how quickly Jason found a new weapon.
Detective Alvarez didn’t.
“He wants you unstable.”
“What if he meant it?”
“Did Lily ever mention anyone else?”
“No.”
“Then don’t let a fugitive rewrite your sister’s life because he knows you’ll listen.”
Still, the words followed me.
You think Noah was mine?
Daniel returned that afternoon with another piece of Lily’s estate file.
She had included prenatal medical records because she planned to establish a trust for Noah.
The records contained the answer.
Jason was Noah’s father.
No mystery.
No affair.
No secret lover.
Lily had undergone prenatal genetic screening after Jason accused her of cheating during one of their fights.
She had documented it.
I stared at the report.
“He knew.”
Daniel nodded.
“So that phone call was just another lie.”
“Yes.”
A lie meant to hurt me.
It almost worked.
That evening, federal agents found Charles Whitmore in a private hangar outside Fort Worth.
He was arrested trying to board a chartered plane to Mexico.
Jason was still missing.
But Charles had something Jason didn’t.
A sense of self-preservation.
Within six hours, his attorney contacted federal prosecutors.
“He wants a deal,” Alvarez told me.
I stared at her.
“For murder?”
“We don’t know what he’ll admit.”
“What did he say?”
“He claims he never intended Lily to die.”
I laughed.
“He’s on tape saying, ‘Make it look like an accident.’”
“He claims he meant financial documents.”
“Of course he does.”
“But he also said something about the night she died.”
My anger faded.
“What?”
“Charles admits he went to the house.”
“With Margaret.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To make Lily sign a confidentiality agreement and transfer documents.”
“What happened?”
Alvarez pulled out her notebook.
“According to Charles, Lily refused. She threatened to expose everything. Jason became angry.”
“And?”
“Charles says he and Margaret left.”
“Before Lily fell?”
“He claims they did.”
“But the dash camera?”
“Shows them arriving. We haven’t reviewed the entire recording yet.”
“Then review it.”
“We are.”
My phone buzzed.
A message.
Unknown number.
A photograph appeared.
It showed me entering my parents’ house less than an hour earlier.
Taken from across the street.
Below it were six words.
Stop digging or lose someone else.
My body went cold.
Alvarez grabbed the phone.
“Everybody away from the windows.”
Dad stood.
“What is it?”
Before I could answer, glass shattered in the kitchen.
Mom screamed.
A brick hit the floor.
Wrapped around it was a piece of paper.
Alvarez drew her weapon.
Dad pulled Mom down.
I stared at the note.
Three words.
GIVE IT BACK.
Alvarez looked at me.
“What does he think you have?”
I immediately thought of Lily’s metal box.
The hard drive.
The recorder.
But all of that was already in evidence.
Then I remembered something Daniel had said.
Lily had left instructions.
Plural.
I looked at him.
“Was there another envelope?”
May you like
His face changed.
And that told me everything.
