Chapter 13 - The Recording at 2:17.
Lucas came out of surgery at 4:06 in the afternoon.
The cardiologist found Claire first.
Ethan stood far enough away to give her privacy and close enough to see the answer before the doctor spoke.
Claire's hands flew to her mouth.
Her knees bent slightly.
The doctor smiled.
Lucas had made it through the procedure.
There would be difficult days ahead.
There would be monitoring, medication adjustments, and no guarantees anyone could responsibly give.
But the immediate crisis had passed.
Claire cried without sound.
Diane wrapped both arms around her.
For a few seconds, the two women simply stood together beneath the bright hospital lights.
Ethan looked away.
He had witnessed enough private pain for one lifetime.
When Claire finally approached him, her face was wet and exhausted.
"He's still here."
Ethan nodded.
"He's still here."
She laughed and cried at the same time.
"I don't know what to do with that sentence."
"You don't have to do anything."
Ethan looked toward the recovery doors.
"Just keep saying it."
Claire nodded.
Then her expression changed.
"The police called me."
"About the video?"
"About the storage unit."
Ethan waited.
"They confirmed the phone messages were fabricated."
Claire breathed out.
"The prepaid phone was activated using a gift card purchased by Margaret's assistant."
"Good."
"Good isn't the word I would use."
"No."
He corrected himself.
"But it clears you."
"It clears one lie."
Claire looked through the glass toward her son.
"There seem to be a lot of them."
At 5:30, Officer Ramirez arrived at the hospital carrying a tablet and two pairs of headphones.
He asked Ethan and Claire to join him in a private consultation room.
Claire hesitated.
"I don't want to leave Lucas."
"Five minutes."
Ramirez said.
"A nurse can get you immediately if anything changes."
Claire agreed.
The recording began with darkness.
The nursery camera had captured only part of the room because someone had draped a blanket over the front.
The microphone, however, remained active.
At 2:17 a.m., Victoria's voice entered clearly.
"She's asking too many questions."
Margaret answered from farther away.
"Then replace her."
"I can't yet."
"Why not?"
"Because she knows about the bottles."
Ethan's hands went cold.
Claire looked down at the table.
Margaret's voice became sharper.
"How much does she know?"
"Enough to be annoying."
"That isn't an answer."
"She saw me this morning."
A long pause followed.
Then Margaret whispered something the microphone barely caught.
"I told you not to make the babies part of this."
Victoria laughed softly.
"You told me sick children raise money."
"I said stories raise money."
"Same thing."
"No, Victoria."
Margaret's voice was suddenly frightened.
"Not the same thing."
Ethan looked at Ramirez.
The officer remained expressionless.
The recording continued.
Victoria walked closer to the camera.
Fabric rustled.
"Nothing happened to them."
"Yet."
Margaret said.
"You don't know how babies react to things."
"I know exactly how much I've used."
Ethan's stomach twisted.
Ramirez paused the recording.
"We removed the next portion from the copy you're hearing because it includes details investigators do not want circulated."
Ethan nodded.
He did not want details.
He wanted his sons to remain people, not evidence.
Ramirez resumed the recording.
Margaret spoke again.
"What about Claire's boy?"
Claire's head lifted.
Her entire body went rigid.
Victoria answered.
"What about him?"
"If he gets worse, she's going to disappear on you."
"Then she disappears."
"And starts asking where the grant money went."
Silence.
Margaret continued.
"You should have picked someone else."
Victoria's voice turned cold.
"You picked her."
Claire inhaled sharply.
Ethan looked at her.
Margaret replied.
"I gave you three names."
"Claire was perfect."
"Because she's broke?"
"Because she's believable."
The room seemed to lose all air.
Victoria continued.
"People see a mother with a sick kid and they stop asking whether the paperwork makes sense."
Claire closed her eyes.
Her fingers curled into fists.
Margaret said something too quiet to understand.
Then Victoria answered clearly.
"Tomorrow Claire either keeps quiet, or she becomes the reason everything happened."
The sentence Ethan already knew sounded worse in his wife's voice.
No anger.
No desperation.
Just planning.
Margaret asked, "How?"
Victoria's reply was nearly casual.
"She already has the history from St. Matthew's."
"That case was cleared."
"Nobody reads the second article."
Claire opened her eyes.
For the first time since Ethan had met her, hatred overtook fear completely.
The recording continued.
"The storage unit is ready."
Victoria said.
"The messages are ready."
"And if she talks before you can use them?"
"She won't."
"You can't keep her in the house forever."
There was a pause.
Then Victoria said something that made Claire turn white.
"I only need one day."
"Why one day?"
"Because by tomorrow night, we'll be gone."
Ethan leaned forward.
Ramirez paused the file.
"Gone where?"
Ethan asked.
"We're still determining that."
"She planned to take the twins."
"Possibly."
"She had passports for them."
"We recovered the passports from a locked drawer."
Ethan stared.
"I didn't know they had passports."
"The applications carry what appears to be your signature."
Ethan laughed bitterly.
Another forged signature.
Of course.
"Where was she going?"
Ramirez swiped to another document.
"We found an itinerary for Montreal and then a reservation under another name to Lisbon."
Claire stared.
"She was leaving the country?"
"That's what the documents suggest."
Ethan felt his stomach turn.
If his Boston meeting had lasted as planned, he would not have returned until nearly seven.
Claire might still have been restrained.
Or she might have been discovered in a staged scene.
Victoria might have taken the twins.
By the time Ethan understood anything, his family could have been on another continent.
"Why didn't she go after she tied Claire?"
Ramirez looked at him.
"Your arrival interrupted the timeline."
Ethan remembered the pastries on the console table.
The ridiculous little surprise that had brought him home.
He had nearly stopped at the office instead.
He had nearly decided pastries would go stale.
His sons' entire future had turned on something that small.
The recording resumed.
Margaret sounded nervous.
"I'm not leaving."
Victoria answered immediately.
"I didn't ask you to."
"And I'm not taking the blame."
"Then don't."
"You have my name on everything."
"You have mine too."
Silence.
Then Margaret said, "What about Ethan?"
Victoria's answer came without hesitation.
"He'll believe whatever I tell him until he has a reason not to."
Ethan's face burned.
Claire glanced at him.
He kept his eyes on the tablet.
Victoria continued.
"And if he doesn't, I have drafts for that too."
Margaret laughed once.
"You really planned every version."
"Someone in this family has to."
The recording ended.
No one spoke for several seconds.
Finally, Claire removed the headphones.
"She never saw me as a person."
Ethan looked at her.
Claire's voice remained quiet.
"I was a sick child, an old scandal, a paycheck, and someone she could blame."
Ethan wanted to apologize.
The word felt insulting now.
"What happens next?"
He asked Ramirez.
"The prosecutor will determine charges based on the total evidence."
"And Margaret?"
"She's cooperating selectively."
Claire laughed without humor.
"Of course she is."
Ramirez continued.
"There's something else you should know."
Ethan almost smiled at the familiar phrase.
"What now?"
"Victoria requested to speak with you."
"No."
The answer surprised even Ethan with its speed.
Ramirez nodded.
"That's your choice."
Claire stood.
"Go."
Ethan looked at her.
"What?"
"Talk to her."
"Why?"
"Because I want to know why."
Ethan frowned.
Claire's eyes held his.
"Not why she stole money."
"Not why she picked me."
Her voice tightened.
"Why she looked at two healthy babies and decided their fear was useful."
Ethan looked toward the hallway where his sons slept one floor below.
He had been avoiding the same question because no answer could possibly make him feel better.
But Claire was right about something.
There were facts.
There were motives.
And then there was the one question every victim carried after the evidence boxes were sealed.
Why?
Ethan agreed to the meeting.
He did not know that Victoria had requested it for a reason of her own.
May you like
She had one final story left.
And this time, she intended to tell it directly to him.
