CHAPTER 9: JASON FINALLY TOLD THE TRUTH
Michael Reeves wanted to meet.
Robert said no.
The police said absolutely not.
I agreed with them.
Then Jason disappeared.
His car was found near the river.
The driver’s door was open.
His phone lay shattered on the road.
There was no blood.
No sign of a struggle.
Just one message sent to me minutes before he vanished.
I know where the original recording is.
I showed it to the detective assigned to the case.
Detective Laura Grant studied the screen.
“What recording?”
“I don’t know.”
“Could it be connected to Daniel Carter?”
“Probably.”
“Could it be a trap?”
“Definitely.”
The detective ordered a search for Jason.
For two days, there was nothing.
My mother refused to cooperate.
Chloe stayed locked in one of the upstairs bedrooms.
Emily moved into a hotel under police protection.
Robert barely slept.
On the third morning, I received an email from Jason.
There was no message.
Only a video attachment.
Jason appeared in a dark room.
A bruise covered his left eye.
“Hannah, I don’t know if this will reach you.”
He looked off camera.
“My father knows the police are watching him.”
“He thinks I gave you the ledger.”
Jason swallowed.
“I didn’t know the whole truth when Chloe introduced us.”
My hands tightened around the laptop.
“She told me your father had hidden assets. She said Margaret needed help accessing them.”
“I agreed to date you because I believed you would inherit everything.”
He closed his eyes.
“I know what that makes me.”
“A liar.”
“A coward.”
“And worse.”
His voice cracked.
“But I did fall in love with you.”
I almost closed the video.
Then he continued.
“Thomas discovered who I was two years ago.”
“He confronted me.”
“He gave me a choice.”
“Leave you immediately, or help him collect evidence against Vantage.”
I stared at the screen.
Dad had known.
“He made me record conversations with Chloe and Margaret.”
“He believed my father ordered Daniel Carter’s death.”
Jason looked toward the door again.
“The night Thomas died, I saw Margaret replace his medication.”
My heart stopped.
“She told me it was a stronger prescription.”
“I believed her until he collapsed.”
Jason began crying.
Not dramatically.
Quietly.
Like a man whose excuses had finally run out.
“I helped them move money.”
“I falsified statements.”
“I lied to you every day.”
“But I did not kill your father.”
A voice sounded outside the room.
Jason rushed to finish.
“There’s a recording from the hospital the night you were born.”
“Daniel left it with my father.”
“It proves who ordered the car sabotage.”
“Thomas found it six months ago.”
“He hid it inside—”
The video ended.
I shouted at the screen.
“Inside what?”
Detective Grant traced the email.
It had been sent from a motel outside the city.
Police reached the motel in twenty minutes.
The room was empty.
But they found blood on the floor.
And one word written on the bathroom mirror.
PIANO
I stared at the photograph Detective Grant sent me.
“Piano?”
Robert looked toward the living room.
My father’s old upright piano had stood there since before I was born.
Mom wanted to sell it.
Dad never allowed her to touch it.
We removed the front panel.
Behind the strings was a small cassette tape wrapped in plastic.
The label read:
DANIEL — HOSPITAL — 1998
We found an old cassette player in the attic.
The tape began with static.
Then a man’s voice spoke.
I had never heard Daniel Carter before.
Yet something in his tone felt familiar.
“If anything happens to me, Michael Reeves ordered it.”
Everyone in the room froze.
Daniel continued.
“Vantage has paid Margaret to remove documents from my office.”
My mother covered her mouth.
The tape played on.
“Margaret says she wants to leave the network.”
“I want to believe her.”
“But Emily warned me that Margaret has been meeting Reeves privately.”
My mother turned away.
Then a woman’s voice appeared on the recording.
Young.
Frightened.
My mother.
“Daniel, they know about the files.”
“Who?”
“Michael.”
“How?”
“I told him.”
There was a long silence.
Then Daniel whispered:
“Why?”
My mother began crying.
“He said he would protect the baby.”
“You trusted him?”
“I didn’t have a choice.”
Daniel’s voice became cold.
“You always had a choice.”
The tape ended.
My mother sank into a chair.
I stared at her.
“You betrayed him.”
She looked at me through tears.
“I was terrified.”
“You gave Michael Reeves the information that got Daniel killed.”
“I didn’t know they would kill him.”
“Did you switch Thomas’s medication?”
Her face collapsed.
“No.”
“Jason saw you.”
“I replaced the pills.”
The room went silent.
“With what?”
“Sedatives.”
“Why?”
“Thomas was going to turn everything over to federal investigators.”
“You drugged him.”
“I wanted time.”
“He died.”
“I didn’t know his heart would fail.”
I stepped away from her.
She reached for me.
I lifted my hand.
“Don’t touch me.”
Detective Grant moved forward.
“Margaret Brooks, you need to come with me.”
My mother stared at the detective.
“Am I under arrest?”
“For now, you are being detained for questioning.”
As they led her toward the door, Chloe ran downstairs.
“Mom?”
Margaret looked at her.
“Call Michael.”
Chloe froze.
Detective Grant stopped walking.
“What did you say?”
My mother realized her mistake.
Too late.
Chloe backed toward the stairs.
Her phone rang.
She looked at the screen.
Then at me.
“It’s him.”
“Answer it,” Detective Grant said.
Chloe pressed the speaker button.
Michael Reeves spoke immediately.
“Did Margaret destroy the tape?”
Nobody answered.
Michael’s voice sharpened.
“Chloe?”
Detective Grant signaled for everyone to remain silent.
Michael continued.
“If Hannah heard that recording, your mother is finished.”
A pause.
“And so are you.”
Chloe started shaking.
“What do you want me to do?”
“Bring me the ledger.”
“Where?”
“The old Vantage building.”
“What about Jason?”
Michael laughed.
“My son finally became useful.”
The call ended.
Chloe stared at the phone.
“What did he mean?”
Detective Grant took it from her.
“He means Jason is still alive.”
Then my phone received a photograph.
Jason was tied to a chair.
A clock sat beside him.
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Below the image were six words:
Bring the ledger before midnight. Alone.
