Chapter 5: The Voice He Could Not Deny
Julian reached for the phone, but Valerie covered it with her hand.
“Step back.”
“That belongs to Cassandra.”
Cassandra moved beside Valerie.
“And I am giving it to her.”
Margaret’s face lost its color.
“You recorded your own family?”
“I recorded two people planning to take another woman’s home.”
Julian’s hand closed around the edge of the table.
“Play it.”
Cassandra unlocked the phone.
Julian’s recorded voice came through the speaker.
“Once the authority is registered, Valerie won’t be able to stop anything.”
Margaret’s voice followed.
“And if she starts asking questions?”
“You remind her how unstable she was after surgery.
People believe paperwork, Mother.
They don’t believe frightened wives.”
Valerie did not move.
The recording continued.
“What about Cassandra?” Margaret asked.
“She’ll stay quiet.
She likes her apartment too much.”
Cassandra stopped the recording.
Julian stared at his sister.
“You ungrateful little fool.”
“You were right about one thing,” Cassandra said.
“I was afraid of losing everything.”
“You just did.”
Valerie slid the phone toward Eleanor.
“Make a copy.”
Julian swept his arm across the table.
The phone struck the floor and broke against the stone.
Margaret gasped.
Cassandra flinched.
Julian looked down at the pieces.
“Now you have nothing.”
Cassandra pulled a small card from her wallet.
“It uploads automatically.”
Eleanor took it from her.
“Where is the backup?”
“An account Julian doesn’t know about.”
Julian’s smile disappeared.
His own phone rang again.
He answered without taking his eyes off Valerie.
“Yes?”
The attorney spoke quickly.
“The bank has restored ordinary access under the existing authority.
The account restriction cannot continue until the hearing.”
Julian ended the call and held up the screen.
“It appears I can still pay for my family’s life.”
Valerie’s phone lit up a moment later.
Three transaction alerts appeared.
“Twenty-five thousand dollars,” she said.
“Then fifty thousand.
Then another fifty.”
Eleanor seized her case.
“He is moving money.”
Julian walked toward the study.
“I am paying legal expenses.”
“From Valerie’s accounts?” Cassandra asked.
“From funds I am authorized to manage.”
Valerie followed him.
“Where are you sending them?”
“To people who won’t abandon me at the first sign of trouble.”
He entered the study and locked the door.
Eleanor placed her ear near the wood.
“The property records and home server are in there.”
Cassandra hurried to a panel beside the bookcase.
“There is another entrance from the conservatory.”
They reached it as Julian pulled a drive from the server.
“What did you erase?” Valerie asked.
“Nothing you can prove.”
Eleanor blocked the outer door.
“Put the drive down.”
Julian held it above a glass of water.
“Withdraw your challenge to the power of attorney.”
“No.”
“Restore my access without limits.”
“No.”
“Then your records disappear.”
He dropped the drive into the glass.
Cassandra covered her mouth.
Julian pushed past Eleanor and walked out.
Valerie lifted the dripping drive by its edge.
“Is this the only copy?”
Cassandra shook her head.
“He believes it is.”
She opened a drawer beneath the server cabinet and removed a brass key.
“Your father installed an off-site archive,” she said.
“Julian asked me to find this key last week.”
“Did you?”
Cassandra placed it in Valerie’s palm.
“I found it first.”
Eleanor looked at the number engraved on the key.
“This isn’t for a storage unit,” she said.
“It belongs to a private bank vault.”
Valerie closed her fingers around it.
From the hall, Julian called his attorney.
May you like
“Prepare the petition about her mental capacity,” he said.
“File it tonight.”
