Chapter 7 - Noah Heard Everything
I knelt in front of Noah.
“Say that again.”
“Aunt Claire brought me.”
Vanessa backed into the wall.
Hale closed his eyes.
I asked Noah to describe her.
He did.
Claire’s green eyes.
The small white scar under her chin from when she fell off my bike at seven.
The silver ring our mother had left her.
Noah knew details no stranger should know.
“Where is she?”
“She left.”
“When?”
“Before you came.”
“Did she say anything?”
Noah nodded.
“She said you had to stop looking for a dead woman and start looking for a living man.”
I looked at Hale.
“My father.”
Hale’s mouth tightened.
“He died in my care.”
“Apparently death certificates aren’t very persuasive around you.”
Noah tugged my sleeve.
“There’s more.”
He reached into his sock and pulled out a tiny black memory card.
“Aunt Claire said not to give this to Grandma Vanessa.”
Vanessa flinched.
“Grandma?” I said.
Noah shrugged. “She said it by accident.”
I turned to Vanessa.
She looked furious at herself.
I slid the card into Hale’s laptop.
One audio file.
Claire’s voice.
“Daniel, if Noah gave you this, I’m either dead or I’ve run out of people I can trust.”
My chest tightened.
“You need to know three things. First, Vanessa helped me disappear.”
I looked at my wife.
“Second, Marcus Hale did not kill Dad.”
Hale exhaled.
“Third, you didn’t push me down those stairs.”
I closed my eyes.
Relief lasted less than a second.
Claire continued.
“You did something worse.”
The room went silent.
“You signed the authorization that made all of this possible. I know you were drugged. I know you didn’t understand what you signed. But the person who drugged you was not Vanessa.”
Vanessa looked at Hale.
Hale whispered, “No.”
Claire’s recording continued.
“Vanessa only thought she was drugging you. The pills Marcus gave her were vitamins.”
I stared at Hale.
He looked just as shocked as I was.
“So who drugged me?” I whispered.
Claire answered from thirteen months away.
“Dad.”
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