Chapter 5: The Voice on the Recording
The next morning, Ethan and I sat across from Graham in his office.
He placed Brooke’s contract beside my original deed.
“If the second claim is what I suspect, she may allege that the farm was promised as security.”
Ethan rubbed both hands over his face.
“She had access to our home scanner and my files.”
“What files?” I asked.
“Copies of Dad’s estate papers.
I kept them because I was executor.”
“You gave her access?”
“I never imagined she would use them against you.”
The office door opened.
The woman who had sat beside Brooke at dinner stepped inside, clutching her phone.
“My name is Tessa Ward,” she said.
“Brooke hired me to organize corporate events.”
Graham rose.
“How can we help you?”
“You can listen.”
Tessa placed her phone on the desk and pressed play.
Brooke’s voice filled the room.
“Once the old woman signs, Harbor Ridge is mine.
Ethan thinks we’ll live there, but Conrad already has a buyer.”
A man laughed on the recording.
“And the farm?”
“I’ll get that too.
She signs whatever I put under her nose.”
My knees weakened.
Ethan reached for me, but I pulled my hand away.
“Mom—”
“Not yet.”
Tessa stopped the recording.
“She said this before you arrived at the restaurant.
I thought she was exaggerating.”
“Why bring it now?” Graham asked.
Tessa looked at me.
“My mother cleans offices at night.
Brooke once told a client not to use the front elevator because my mother was carrying supplies.
Last night, when she spoke to you that way, I heard my own silence.”
She pushed the phone toward Graham.
“You may keep a copy.”
“Thank you,” I said.
Tessa shook her head.
“I should have spoken sooner.”
Ethan stared at the screen.
“Who is Conrad?”
“Conrad Vale,” Graham said.
“President of Harbor Development.”
My son’s mouth tightened.
“I introduced them.”
I turned to him.
“You did what?”
“He sponsored one of Brooke’s events.
She asked whether Dad had left valuable property.”
“And what did you tell her?”
“That Harbor Ridge would probably come to us someday.”
My hand slipped from the arm of the chair.
“You made me sound like an obstacle between her and a house.”
“I was showing off.
I wanted her to believe I could give her the life she wanted.”
My eyes filled before I could stop them.
“Your father worked until his hands split to save Harbor Ridge.
I kept it through his illness.
And you discussed it like a prize waiting for me to step aside.”
Ethan crouched beside my chair.
“I failed you long before last night.”
“You watched her diminish me.”
“I told myself keeping peace was kindness.”
“It was kindness to her.
Not to me.”
He bowed his head.
“I knew you were swallowing the hurt because you loved me.
I let you do it.”
The first tear fell onto my coat.
Tessa brought me a glass of water and remained beside me.
“You don’t have to protect either of them today,” she said.
My fingers closed around the glass.
“No.
I don’t.”
Graham replayed the final seconds.
Beneath Brooke’s voice, Conrad said something almost too faint to hear.
He increased the volume.
“Once the farm is included, the whole shoreline belongs to us.”
I set the glass down.
“My farm is not on the shoreline.”
Graham pulled a county map from his cabinet and traced an old boundary in red.
May you like
“No,” he said.
“But the access road to Conrad’s planned development runs straight through it.”
