Chapter 12 - THE PRICE OF SILENCE
For the first time in years, I understood why Thomas might have kept a terrible secret.
Fear has a way of dressing itself as protection.
But hiding evidence had never made any of us safer.
Michael contacted Detective Ruiz and arranged a formal interview for Elise.
David informed his wife, Rebecca, and they took practical precautions without frightening the girls.
I hated that my granddaughter's school had become part of our calculations.
Sarah called that evening.
Her voice was soft and practiced.
"Mom, I heard you met a woman who says she's Dad's daughter."
"Who told you?"
"People talk."
I asked her to come clean about Greg's business activities.
She said I was becoming paranoid.
"There are photographs of children," I told her.
For once, she stopped speaking.
I heard a sharp intake of breath.
Then she whispered, "He wasn't supposed to do that."
I gripped the phone.
"Who wasn't?"
Sarah began crying.
She told me Greg had borrowed money from a private lender after losing money on speculative contracts.
The lender knew personal details about our family and demanded access to Thomas's old company accounts.
Sarah said Greg promised the trouble would end if she could obtain my cash and a certain old ledger.
"Then why did you push me?" I asked.
"Because you said no," she whispered.
There was no excuse hidden inside those words.
Only a choice.
She asked whether I would forgive her.
"I don't know," I answered.
"But you're going to tell the police everything you just told me."
Her voice hardened.
"If I do, Greg will destroy me."
"If you don't, you may help him destroy someone else."
Sarah ended the call.
Ten minutes later, an unknown number sent me a video.
Greg stood in a parking garage handing a thick envelope to June.
A man off camera said, "Once Margaret is declared incapable, we move on David."
Then the camera turned.
May you like
The speaker was someone I recognized from Thomas's funeral.
