Chapter 7: The Recording Beneath the Floor
Ruby ran to the music room while Santiago called his attorney.
Mrs.
Mercer followed and locked the door.
“You said there was another copy,” Ruby said.
“I wanted Elena to believe there was.”
“So there isn’t?”
Mrs.
Mercer knelt beside the piano bench and pulled away a loose strip of wood.
A memory card lay inside a paper sleeve.
“I had the cassette transferred six years ago.”
“Why didn’t you give it to Santiago?”
“Because Elena threatened my grandson.
She knew where he lived and where his children went to school.”
Ruby crouched beside her.
“Why help now?”
Mrs.
Mercer pressed the card into Ruby’s palm.
“Because Sophia finally found her voice, and I will not be the reason she loses it twice.”
Santiago entered with a laptop.
Ruby inserted the card.
His father’s voice crackled through the speakers.
“Elena, I know about the forged transfers.”
Elena’s recorded voice answered.
“You cannot prove anything.”
“I am changing the trust tomorrow.
Sophia will receive control of her own inheritance, and Santiago will audit every account.”
A chair scraped.
“You promised me security,” Elena said.
“I promised you employment.”
The sound of a struggle followed, then a heavy fall.
Sophia’s younger voice cried out.
Elena spoke again, breathless and cold.
“If you tell Santiago what you saw, Mara will lose Ruby.
Do you understand me?”
Mara’s voice came from farther away.
“Stay away from that child.”
Dr.
Vale answered next.
“Give Sophia the tablets.
By morning, everyone will believe shock caused her silence.”
Santiago stopped the recording.
His hand shook over the keyboard.
“They did this while I was away.”
Ruby looked at him.
“They depended on your trust.”
His attorney appeared on the laptop screen.
“Send me the file and the medication logs.
I can request an emergency hearing tonight.”
Mrs.
Mercer touched Ruby’s arm.
“There is more.”
The recording resumed.
Mara said, “I copied the account ledgers.”
Elena laughed.
“Then your daughter will pay for your courage.”
Ruby covered her mouth.
“My mother didn’t abandon me,” she whispered.
“No,” Mrs.
Mercer said.
“She left to keep Elena away from you.”
Santiago closed the laptop.
“We are going to the clinic.”
They reached the private facility as Elena came through the reception area carrying Sophia’s file.
Dr.
Vale hurried beside her.
“Where is my sister?” Santiago demanded.
Elena stopped.
“Being admitted.”
Ruby held up her phone.
“We heard the recording.”
Dr.
Vale turned toward the rear exit.
Owen stepped into his path.
“The investigators are waiting outside.”
Elena tightened her grip on the file.
“A damaged recording proves nothing.”
“It proves enough for an emergency order,” Santiago said.
His attorney appeared behind him with the court representative.
“Sophia’s transfer has been suspended.
Ms.
Voss, hand over the file.”
Elena tore the folder open and pulled out several pages.
Ruby caught her wrist.
“Not this time.”
Elena shoved the pages toward a paper shredder.
Mrs.
Mercer yanked the plug from the wall before the blades moved.
The clinic doors opened.
Sophia stood there in a hospital gown, holding a small black notebook.
“Elena kept notes,” she said.
Elena’s face went white.
Sophia opened the notebook to a page filled with dates, payments, and Dr.
Vale’s initials.
May you like
Then she looked directly at Elena.
“You wrote down every time you paid him.”
