Chapter 6: My Father’s Last Warning
Margaret rushed toward the screen.
Ruiz blocked her.
“Sit down.”
“That recording is false,” Margaret said.
“Irene manufactured it.”
Carla appeared in the video again.
“I only agreed to frighten Irene,” she said.
“I never agreed to repeat what happened with Dad.”
Margaret seized the box from her.
“Your father was weak.
I did what was necessary.”
The video ended.
I turned to Margaret.
“What did you do to him?”
“He was sick.”
“He was recovering.”
“He would have ruined everything.”
My father had suffered complications after surgery eighteen months earlier.
Margaret controlled his visitors during his final week, and Victor brought revised trust documents to the hospital.
“You changed his medication,” I said.
Margaret raised her chin.
“I followed instructions.”
“Whose instructions?”
“His doctor’s.”
Ruiz stepped closer.
“Then you won’t mind giving us the doctor’s name.”
Margaret looked at Victor.
He buttoned his jacket.
“I advised only on financial matters.”
“You brought papers to his hospital room,” Leah said.
“At Theodore’s request.”
“That’s a lie,” I said.
Victor pointed at Margaret.
“She told me Theodore wanted the amendments.”
Margaret’s hand came down on the table.
“You were paid to keep your mouth shut.”
The judge looked toward the bailiff.
“No one leaves this room.”
Carla stood near the wall, shaking.
“Carla,” I said, “tell me what happened.”
Margaret spun toward her.
“Say one word, and I will make sure you have nothing.”
“You already took everything,” Carla whispered.
“I paid your debts.”
“You created them.
You opened cards in my name and told me I would go to prison if I didn’t help you.”
“You enjoyed every dollar.”
Carla’s eyes filled.
“I never touched Dad’s medicine.”
“But you knew,” I said.
She nodded once.
“And you still helped her terrorize Irene.”
“I thought Mom only wanted the trust papers.”
I stepped closer.
“You stood over my pregnant wife with a hammer.”
Carla covered her face.
“Look at me,” Irene’s voice said from behind us.
Nurse Patel pushed Irene into the room in a wheelchair.
Helen hurried toward her.
“You should be in the hospital.”
“I needed to say this where they could hear me.”
I knelt beside her.
“You shouldn’t have come.”
“Neither should your mother have entered our home.”
Irene looked at Carla.
“You watched Margaret put those packets in my tea.
You heard me ask why I couldn’t remember entire evenings.”
“I’m sorry.”
“You are sorry because the camera survived.”
Carla lowered her hands.
Irene turned to Margaret.
“You told me Austin would choose you.
You said wives could be replaced, but mothers could not.”
Margaret gave a cold smile.
“And he did choose me, over and over.”
The words struck harder because they were true.
Irene’s shoulders folded, and I caught both her hands.
“She’s right about who I was,” I said.
“She is wrong about who I choose now.”
Irene began to cry.
Nurse Patel knelt beside the chair and wrapped a blanket around her shoulders.
“You survived long enough to be heard,” the nurse said.
“Let them hear all of it.”
Leah moved toward us.
“There is one more file.”
She inserted her flash drive into the courtroom computer.
“My father recorded something?” I asked.
“Three days before he went into the hospital,” Leah said.
“He gave it to me because he no longer trusted Victor.”
My father appeared on the screen, thinner than I remembered.
“If Austin sees this,” he said, “Margaret has done exactly what I feared.
She wants control of the trust, and Victor is helping her.
I have revoked every amendment they placed before me.”
Margaret backed toward the door.
The bailiff caught her arm.
My father leaned closer to the camera.
“Austin, there is one person who knows where the signed revocation is hidden.
May you like
Find Dr.
Samuel Reed before Margaret does.”
