Chapter 19: The Tape
That night, Marta called us. She’d found an old cassette tape tucked inside a book of my mother’s. Recorded twenty years earlier.
When we played it, my mother’s voice filled the room—clear, scared, and steady.
*“Arthur, please—don’t do this. Don’t hurt anyone else. We can turn ourselves in. We can fix it.”*
Then Sterling’s voice: “There is no fixing it. You made your choice. Now you live with it.”
We handed it over at dawn. By noon, Sterling was arrested at his country club.
The news broke nationwide. The powerful judge, the respected lawyer, the wealthy family—all tangled in lies and blood money.
That evening, we stood on the porch of the safe house watching the sunset. Jude leaned against the rail.
“It’s over,” he said. “All of it.”
Lucas shook his head slowly. “Not quite. We still have to go back to that cemetery.”
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