Chapter 10 - Emma’s Version
Benjamin was furious.
“You met a represented potential witness alone.”
“Yes.”
“You discussed ongoing litigation.”
“Yes.”
“You accepted digital evidence without forensic handling.”
“I didn’t take the phone.”
“That is the first good thing you’ve said.”
Laura sat across from him.
“I needed to know.”
“No. You needed to feel in control.”
The words hurt because they were true.
Benjamin leaned back.
“Nathan is manipulating your need for immediate answers.”
Laura looked away.
“He staged Emma catching them.”
Benjamin’s anger disappeared.
“What?”
She told him everything.
When she finished, he said, “We need Vanessa under oath.”
“She wants protection.”
“Then her lawyer can discuss cooperation with the appropriate authorities.”
“And Emma?”
“What about her?”
“She was used.”
Benjamin’s expression softened.
“Do not question her yourself.”
Laura immediately resisted.
“She’s my daughter.”
“Which is why you’re the worst person to interview her.”
“I need to know what Nathan said.”
“No. A child therapist or attorney for the child can handle that appropriately if necessary.”
Laura wanted to argue.
She didn’t.
That evening Emma sat at the kitchen island drawing.
Laura made hot chocolate.
She did not ask about the plane.
She did not ask about Nathan.
She simply sat beside her.
After several minutes, Emma spoke.
“Dad told me you were going to sell Grandpa’s company.”
Laura froze.
“When?”
Emma kept drawing.
“Before the plane.”
Laura’s heart raced.
“Where were you?”
“At the airport.”
“What exactly did he say?”
The question escaped before Laura could stop it.
Emma’s pencil stopped.
“You said we weren’t supposed to talk about court stuff.”
“You’re right.”
Laura backed away.
“I’m sorry.”
Emma stared at her.
“Dad keeps asking what I remember too.”
Laura felt sick.
“What does he ask?”
Emma’s eyes filled.
“He asks if you were yelling.”
Laura put down her mug.
“Em—”
“He asks if you scared me.”
Laura closed her eyes.
“He says I don’t have to choose, but then he keeps asking.”
Laura moved toward her.
Emma slid off the stool.
“Stop asking me things!”
The shout startled them both.
“I don’t want to remember the plane!”
Emma ran upstairs.
Laura stood alone in the kitchen.
Her mistake had been quieter this time.
No reporters.
No accusation.
She had simply made her daughter feel like evidence.
Nathan had done it first.
Laura had promised herself she would not.
And then fear made her do it anyway.
She called Benjamin.
“I asked Emma about the plane.”
He was silent.
“Not much. But enough.”
“Stop.”
“I know.”
“No, Laura. Understand me. If both parents interrogate her, the court will consider appointing a neutral forensic evaluator, and Emma will suffer because neither of you could leave her out of it.”
Laura covered her face.
“I’m sorry.”
“Tell Emma that. Not me.”
She did.
Later that night, Emma opened her bedroom door.
Laura sat on the floor outside.
“I’m sorry,” Laura said. “You don’t have to tell me anything.”
Emma watched her.
“Even if it helps you?”
“Even then.”
“Even if Dad lies?”
Laura swallowed.
“Even then.”
Emma slowly sat beside her.
For a while, neither spoke.
Then Emma said something Laura did not expect.
“I saw Dad put his phone in the black bag.”
Laura kept her face neutral.
“What black bag?”
“The one with the zipper.”
She remembered Benjamin.
Do not question.
So she said only, “Okay.”
Emma continued on her own.
“He told me to get my blue sweater from the back before we took off.”
Laura’s skin prickled.
The sweater had been in the rear cabin.
Emma would have had to walk through the lounge.
“He knew I forgot it.”
Laura stared at the carpet.
Nathan had directed his own daughter toward the scene.
Emma whispered, “I think he wanted me to see.”
Laura’s chest hurt.
“Why?”
Emma shrugged.
Then her face crumpled.
“Because when I yelled ‘Dad,’ he looked scared. But Vanessa didn’t.”
Laura turned.
Emma remembered something Laura had missed.
“Vanessa was looking at the black bag.”
“The one with the zipper?”
Emma nodded.
“She looked at it before you came in.”
Laura said nothing.
Emma leaned against her.
“Mom?”
“Yes?”
“Did Dad ever love us?”
Laura closed her eyes.
“I think he loved us.”
“Then why did he do it?”
Laura kissed her hair.
“Sometimes people love you and still choose themselves.”
Emma considered that.
Then said, “That’s stupid.”
A broken laugh escaped Laura.
“Yes.”
After Emma fell asleep, Laura called Benjamin and relayed only the volunteered statements.
He arranged for Emma’s court-appointed attorney to be informed.
The next morning Vanessa’s lawyer contacted prosecutors.
By afternoon, the burner phone was preserved by a forensic examiner.
The messages were real.
So was Nathan’s secret recording.
But when investigators recovered the video file Vanessa described, there was a problem.
The original beginning was missing.
Nathan had overwritten it.
The surviving footage started with Laura entering the cabin.
Emma crying.
Nathan beside Vanessa.
Laura picking up the wedding ring.
Then Laura saying:
“You’re on my family’s jet.”
Followed by:
“You were planning to have me declared incapacitated?”
Without the preceding context, it looked explosive.
Gregory Sloane submitted it in the guardianship proceeding the next morning.
Alongside Dr. Bell’s affidavit.
And a second physician’s certification.
Laura read the name.
Her entire body went cold.
The second doctor was not a stranger.
It was Dr. Elaine Foster.
Laura’s own physician of twelve years.
The woman who had treated Laura through pregnancy.
May you like
The woman Laura trusted.
The petition now had exactly what Nathan needed to trigger the voting trust’s temporary incapacity clause.
