Chapter 10 - Emily's Drawing
Detective Ruiz refused to use Nathan's account of Emily's statement alone.
A second forensic interview was scheduled.
Nathan hated sending his daughter back into another interview room.
Emily surprised him.
"I want to tell."
He crouched beside her.
"You don't have to be brave for me."
"I'm not."
She glanced toward the closed door.
"I'm tired of keeping it."
The interviewer did not ask leading questions.
Emily described a memory in fragments.
She had been five.
A storm woke her.
She went downstairs looking for Laura.
Victoria entered through the side door.
Her silver coat was wet.
One shoe had mud on it.
Victoria spoke on the phone.
Emily remembered exact words because they frightened her.
"She was still breathing when I left."
Then:
"Julian, stop calling me."
Emily had not understood.
Victoria saw her.
Victoria knelt.
"You were dreaming."
Emily said no.
Victoria squeezed her shoulders.
"Sometimes little girls remember things that didn't happen."
Years later, whenever Emily tried to mention the memory, Victoria told her Nathan might lose custody if police thought he was unstable.
Then the punishments began.
Not daily.
Not obvious.
Standing in a dark pantry.
Losing meals.
Cold showers.
The cord.
Caleb was threatened whenever Emily refused to answer questions about Laura's key.
Nathan listened to only the summary.
Even that was enough.
He went to the restroom and vomited.
Mara waited outside.
"Don't blame yourself for what Victoria did."
Nathan washed his face.
"I brought her into their home."
"That isn't the same thing."
"I ignored Emily."
"You didn't know."
"I didn't want to know."
Mara said nothing.
Nathan looked at himself in the mirror.
That was the truth he could live with.
Not that he had caused Victoria's cruelty.
But that he had preferred the appearance of healing over examining whether his children were actually healed.
Later, Ruiz met him with an evidence technician.
They had revisited Laura's crash evidence.
In a sealed property bag were miscellaneous objects collected from the driver's footwell.
Coins.
A broken pen.
A small piece of silver metal.
Ruiz placed a photograph on the table.
A bracelet clasp.
Nathan stared.
"Victoria."
"Maybe."
They compared it to old gala photographs.
Victoria's bracelet had a distinctive clasp shaped like two overlapping leaves.
The broken piece matched that design.
Ruiz had already contacted the jeweler.
The bracelet was custom.
Purchased by Nathan as a thank-you gift for Victoria after she organized a Mercer Foundation event.
He remembered now.
Laura had chosen it.
"Could Laura have borrowed it?" Ruiz asked.
"No."
"How certain?"
"Very."
"People borrow jewelry."
"Victoria hated anyone touching her things."
Ruiz almost smiled.
"That isn't admissible science."
The jeweler provided repair records.
Victoria brought the bracelet in two days after Laura's death.
The repair ticket said:
REPLACE BROKEN CLASP. REPLACE ONE MISSING SAPPHIRE.
Nathan sat back.
Ruiz said, "Still not proof she caused the crash."
"She was there."
"Yes."
"She lied."
"Yes."
"Her bracelet broke inside Laura's car."
"Apparently."
"How much more do you need?"
"For murder?"
Ruiz looked directly at him.
"A lot."
Nathan hated the answer because he knew she was right.
That afternoon, the Mercer Systems board removed him as chairman.
Claire voted yes.
Julian became interim chairman as well as acting CEO.
Nathan lost access to corporate servers.
By evening, Julian controlled the company Nathan had founded.
Nathan called Claire.
She answered but said nothing.
He whispered, "I hope it was worth it."
Then he hung up.
An hour later, an envelope arrived at the hotel.
No return address.
Inside was an old flash drive.
One file.
A voicemail export.
Laura's number.
Timestamp: 11:58 p.m. the night she died.
Nathan recognized the message.
He had received it.
He had never listened to the entire thing.
He had been in a board call.
Laura had left four messages that evening.
Nathan listened to the first twenty seconds of this one the next morning, after police called.
Then he had stopped.
For three years, he could not bear to hear the rest.
Now he inserted the drive.
Laura's voice filled the room.
"Nathan, I know you're angry. I know you think I'm trying to destroy what you built."
He closed his eyes.
"But I'm not calling about our marriage."
A pause.
Rain in the background.
"I'm with Victoria. She says she can show me where Julian hid the second ledger."
Nathan opened his eyes.
Laura continued.
"If she's telling the truth, everything changes."
A car door slammed.
Then Laura said something Nathan had never heard.
"If anything happens, don't trust—"
A man's voice interrupted.
"Give me the phone."
The message ended.
Nathan replayed the last three seconds.
Once.
Twice.
Six times.
May you like
Then he whispered the name he had been afraid to say.
"Julian."
