Chapter 7 - The Recording Under Sophie’s Bed
My mother lived twenty minutes away in a gated house overlooking the ocean.
Eleanor Carter had spent most of my life insisting that family problems stayed inside the family.
That afternoon, I walked into her living room carrying the toxicology report.
She did not look surprised.
That hurt more than I expected.
“You knew I was drugged.”
She set down her tea.
“I knew you were unwell.”
“Vanessa took my blood.”
“Yes.”
“You hired her.”
“I hired a nurse.”
“You hired the woman who later moved into my house and hurt my daughter.”
Eleanor’s mouth tightened.
“I did not know she would become involved with you.”
“Lucas introduced us.”
“I know.”
Every answer made the room smaller.
“Why was Olivia at Harbor Ridge?”
My mother looked toward the windows.
“Because she discovered something that would have destroyed the company.”
“What?”
“Ask Lucas.”
“I am asking you.”
She stood.
“Your father built Carter Development from nothing. Forty years of work. Thousands of employees. Olivia found irregularities and decided everyone was a criminal.”
“Were they?”
Eleanor didn’t answer.
I laughed without humor.
“That’s what I thought.”
“She was going to take Sophie and disappear.”
“So you locked her up?”
“We tried to get her help.”
“You forged a story around her.”
My mother finally lost her composure.
“You have no idea what Olivia was planning.”
“Then tell me.”
“She wanted the FBI.”
The words hung in the room.
“Why?”
“Because she believed company money had been moved into accounts under your name.”
My mind flashed back to the recorder.
Lucas saying if I remembered Harbor Ridge, they were finished.
I stepped toward my mother.
“Was money moved under my name?”
She looked at me.
“Yes.”
“By Lucas?”
Her silence came too slowly.
“Mom.”
Before she answered, my phone buzzed.
Grace.
I answered immediately.
“Ethan, Sophie found something.”
“What?”
“There was a second recorder taped underneath her bed.”
My stomach dropped.
“Olivia’s?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Why?”
“Because it was already recording when we found it.”
I left without another word.
At home, Malcolm had swept Sophie’s room and found two more listening devices.
One in a smoke detector.
One inside a stuffed dolphin Vanessa bought Sophie for her birthday.
The recorder under the bed had captured the previous night.
Most of it was silence.
Then, at 2:11 a.m., a woman’s voice whispered from the hallway.
Olivia.
“I can’t keep coming here.”
A man answered.
“You don’t have a choice.”
I recognized the voice.
Detective Owen Bell.
The detective who had handled Mason’s disappearance.
Then Olivia said:
“If Ethan learns Sophie is the reason they kept me alive, everything changes.”
Before I left my mother’s house, she caught my arm.
“If Olivia is talking to Bell, do not assume Bell controls her.”
I pulled away.
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“Olivia learned how to survive around people who lie for a living.”
“She was imprisoned.”
“Yes. And she escaped.”
“Why are you afraid of her?”
Eleanor’s composure cracked.
“Because before she disappeared, she copied something from your father’s safe.”
“What?”
“She never told me.”
“Then how do you know?”
“Because the night after the crash, your father tore the house apart looking for it.”
My phone buzzed with the recording from Sophie’s room.
Olivia’s voice repeated in my mind: Sophie is the reason they kept me alive.
I looked at my mother.
“What did Dad lose?”
Eleanor whispered, “The one document that could take the company away from every Carter except Sophie.”
---
The next chapters are on the left side of your screen.
If you enjoyed the story, bookmark my site: https://metro.treeiq.biz
May you like
New stories are posted daily, so check back for updates.
