Chapter 12 - THE SECOND RECORDING
The small recorder found behind the filing cabinet in Ewald's first storage unit became important one week later.
Investigators recovered several audio files from its memory card.
Most were useless.
Office noise.
A radio playing in the background.
Fragments of phone calls too muffled to identify.
Then they found a conversation recorded eleven days before Mother's Day.
Because the device and recording were part of an active investigation, we did not receive the full file immediately.
But Lydia, through her lawyer, was asked about it.
She recognized the setting.
Ewald had sometimes used the recorder to dictate notes after meetings.
Apparently, he forgot to switch it off before a family discussion.
Lydia's lawyer later confirmed she had been asked about a conversation involving Ewald, Bianca, and herself.
That was enough to make Bianca nervous.
We knew because she called Alexander seventeen times in one afternoon.
He answered none of them.
Then she sent a message.
WE NEED TO FIX THIS BEFORE DAD DOES SOMETHING STUPID.
Alexander showed it to Marta.
"What does that mean?"
"It means exactly what it says and nothing more until we know more."
He sighed.
"I knew you were going to say that."
"Good."
Two days later, Ewald requested a meeting through lawyers.
He wanted a private settlement of the financial dispute.
Marta asked what he proposed.
His lawyer sent terms.
Ewald would return the €25,000 in installments over six months.
He would provide a written statement saying my apartment option would never be enforced.
He would reimburse certain fees.
In exchange, Alexander and I would stop pursuing civil claims against Ewald's company and agree not to make public statements about the family dispute.
The proposal said nothing about the employer investigation.
Nothing about forged signatures.
Nothing about electronic access.
Nothing about the ninety thousand euros already transferred.
I read it once.
"No."
Marta looked at Alexander.
He said, "No."
She nodded.
"Then we decline."
Ewald's second offer came the same day.
This time, he offered the full €25,000 immediately.
He also offered another €20,000 described as reimbursement for disputed household transfers.
Still no acknowledgment of wrongdoing.
Still no explanation.
Alexander asked, "Where is he suddenly getting forty-five thousand?"
Marta shrugged.
"We do not know."
I thought of Kessler Capital.
I thought of hidden accounts.
I thought of how many people Ewald had persuaded to finance his pride.
"No," I said again.
Alexander agreed.
The third offer never arrived.
Instead, Bianca came to my building.
She did not knock on my door this time.
She waited in the lobby.
Frau Keller saw her and called me.
"Your storm cloud is downstairs."
I almost laughed.
Marta had told me not to meet Bianca alone if I felt unsafe.
I did not feel physically afraid of her.
I did fear being manipulated into another argument.
So I called Alexander and told him where she was.
He said he was ten minutes away.
I stayed upstairs.
Bianca waited twenty-three minutes.
Then she sent me a text.
I ONLY WANT FIVE MINUTES.
I replied once.
ALEXANDER IS COMING.
Her answer arrived immediately.
I DON'T WANT ALEXANDER.
I WANT YOU.
That was exactly why I refused.
When Alexander arrived, he found Bianca sitting on the lobby bench in a cream coat, looking exhausted.
Frau Keller watched from behind her half-open door upstairs.
I came down only after my son called me.
Bianca stood when she saw me.
For a moment, she looked like the woman I first met years ago.
Polished.
Controlled.
Almost warm.
"Helga."
"Bianca."
"Can we talk somewhere private?"
"No."
Her eyes flicked toward Alexander.
"You don't trust me?"
I looked at her.
"No."
The direct answer disturbed her more than anger would have.
She sat again.
"Dad is sick."
Alexander's face tightened.
"What do you mean?"
"His blood pressure is dangerous."
"He barely sleeps."
"Mom is destroying him."
"Your mother?" Alexander asked.
"She's feeding investigators lies."
I said nothing.
Bianca turned toward me.
"You understand what this is doing to our family?"
"Which part?"
"The part where you took my money?"
"The part where you entered my apartment?"
"The part where my signature appeared on a property document I never signed?"
"Or the part where confidential files came out of Alexander's account?"
Bianca's face hardened.
"I did not forge your signature."
"Then who did?"
"Ask my father."
Alexander stared at her.
That was new.
"You're blaming Ewald now?"
"I'm telling the truth."
"Did he write the Mother's Day email from your account too?"
She looked at him sharply.
"What email?"
Alexander said nothing.
Bianca understood she had revealed too much interest.
"You have access to my private emails?"
"My employer recovered an email you sent to Peter."
He did not mention the Mother's Day email from Lydia's files.
Bianca exhaled.
"Peter is a liar."
"The email came from you."
"Dad told me what to send."
"So you sent confidential company material?"
She stood.
"I didn't know it was confidential."
"It had the company watermark."
"I didn't open the attachment."
"You forwarded a file without opening it?"
"Yes."
"To a man you say is a liar?"
"Dad asked me to."
Alexander stared at her.
"Every answer is Dad now."
Bianca's eyes filled.
"Because he controlled everything."
"Did he control your hand when you took the money from Mom?"
She flinched.
"I panicked."
"Did he control your hand when you sent it to him?"
"I was trying to protect my parents' house."
"With my mother's gift?"
"It was twenty-five thousand euros, Alex."
"She didn't need it."
The lobby went quiet.
Bianca realized what she had said.
I smiled sadly.
There it was again.
The belief beneath everything.
She did not need it.
My needs were always negotiable because Bianca had decided my age made my life smaller.
"You still think it was yours to decide," I said.
"I think families share."
"Then why didn't you ask?"
She had no answer.
Alexander asked, "What do you want from Mom?"
Bianca looked directly at me.
"Tell Lydia to stop."
I almost laughed.
"I do not control Lydia."
"She listens to you now."
"No."
"She is afraid of Ewald now."
"Those are different things."
Bianca stepped closer.
"If Mom keeps talking, Dad will blame me for everything."
"Maybe he already has," Alexander said.
She looked at him with genuine fear.
"You don't know what he's like when he thinks he's cornered."
Alexander's expression softened for one second.
I saw the old husband return.
Then he asked, "Did he make you forge my mother's signature?"
Bianca looked at the floor.
"Answer me."
"I didn't forge it."
"Did you practice it?"
Her head snapped up.
"Who told you that?"
That was the answer.
Alexander closed his eyes.
Bianca realized it too.
"Mom is lying."
"We have the practice sheets."
Her face emptied.
For several seconds, no one spoke.
Then Bianca did something unexpected.
She laughed.
Not loudly.
Not happily.
She laughed the way I had laughed on Mother's Day when I realized the mask had finally slipped.
"Of course she kept them."
Alexander whispered, "So it's true."
Bianca looked at him.
"You want the truth?"
"Yes."
"Your father-in-law was going to lose his house."
"My mother was terrified."
"My father said your mother would never voluntarily help us because she hated me."
"He said the apartment would be yours eventually anyway."
"He said all we needed was something on paper to keep lenders calm until the business recovered."
I felt sick.
"So you signed my name."
Bianca looked at me.
"I copied it."
Alexander whispered, "Oh my God."
She rushed on.
"We were never going to take your apartment."
"It was temporary."
"Dad said the option would never be exercised."
"It was just paper."
I stared at her.
"My name was just paper?"
"You don't understand the pressure we were under."
"No."
"I understand exactly what pressure you were under."
"I also understand you chose my property as the thing you were willing to risk."
Bianca began crying.
"I'm sorry."
Alexander looked at her as if the words came from another language.
"Why are you telling us this now?"
She wiped her face.
"Because Dad recorded everything."
The lobby became perfectly still.
"What do you mean?" Alexander asked.
"He recorded meetings so he could remember details."
"Sometimes he left the recorder running."
"Mom told me investigators found it."
"If they listen to the right file, Dad will say I planned all of it."
"Did you?"
"Not all of it."
Alexander stepped closer.
"Which part did you plan?"
Bianca looked at me.
Then at him.
"The Mother's Day money."
My son closed his eyes.
She continued before he could stop her.
"Dad needed twenty-five thousand before May fifteenth."
"I knew you were saving it for Helga."
"I told him I could get it back after you gave it to her."
Alexander's voice was barely audible.
"Get it back."
"That's what you called stealing it from her hands?"
Bianca sobbed.
"I was desperate."
"You were prepared."
He looked at me.
Then back at his wife.
"There is a difference."
Bianca's face crumpled.
For the first time, Alexander did not move to comfort her.
He simply asked, "What is on the second recording?"
She stared at him.
"Enough to destroy my father."
"And you?"
May you like
Bianca whispered, "Maybe."
