PART 6 — The Nursery Wall
Marcus stood so quickly that his chair struck the floor.
“That recording has been altered.”
Sienna stared at him.
“You were there.”
“I visited the house to discuss corporate documents.”
“You watched him hurt me.”
Marcus pointed toward the laptop.
“That audio would never survive forensic examination.”
Commissioner Fletcher stepped closer.
“Then you won’t mind surrendering your phone.”
“I absolutely mind.”
Fletcher’s expression hardened.
“You may surrender it voluntarily, or investigators can seek a warrant.”
Marcus looked toward me.
“Victoria, you know me.”
“I thought I did.”
Upstairs, officers entered the sealed nursery with Sienna’s consent.
I followed.
The room had once been painted pale yellow.
A wooden crib remained beneath a white sheet.
Tiny stars still covered the ceiling.
Sienna stopped in the doorway.
For a moment, she was not a frightened wife or a corporate witness.
She was a grieving mother standing inside the room she had prepared for a child she never got to hold.
“I asked Garrick to leave this room alone,” she whispered.
Instead, he had installed a lock.
An officer removed the backup camera from behind a smoke detector.
Another examined the wall where Miriam had been seen carrying the metal box.
One panel sounded hollow.
They removed it carefully.
Inside was a narrow compartment.
The metal box sat behind the insulation.
Garrick appeared at the end of the hallway.
“You have no right to open that.”
Sienna turned toward him.
“This is my house.”
“Everything here belongs to my family.”
“Not anymore.”
The officer opened the box.
Inside were six burner phones, stacks of unsigned contracts, company seals, and copies of my trust documents.
At the bottom was a sealed envelope.
My name was written across the front.
The handwriting belonged to Henry.
My late husband.
My knees nearly gave way.
Henry had been dead for twenty-one years.
I opened the envelope carefully.
The first line read:
Victoria, if you are reading this, then Marcus has already lied to you.
I forced myself to continue.
Henry wrote that he had discovered unauthorized payments flowing from Ashford Industries through the family trust.
He believed Miriam and Marcus were working together.
He planned to confront them after returning from a business trip.
Henry never returned from that trip.
His car left the highway during a rainstorm.
The police called it a mechanical failure.
At the bottom of the letter, Henry had written one final warning.
Do not believe the accident report. The brakes were inspected two days before I died.
Behind me, Commissioner Fletcher quietly said my name.
He was holding one of the burner phones.
Its most recent message had been sent Friday night.
To Marcus.
May you like
The message read:
She found Henry’s letter. We need to finish this before her mother arrives.
