Chapter 4 - My Wife’s Voice in the Dark
Genevieve looked directly into the camera.
“I need you to listen before you get angry.”
A terrible little laugh escaped me.
Even recorded, she knew me.
“I found irregularities involving Bellwether and your uncle. I’m copying everything before I bring it to you because I know what you do when someone threatens this family.”
Prescott looked away.
I kept watching.
“This cannot become another problem solved by making somebody afraid. There are patients involved. Families. People who deserve answers that survive outside this room.”
She paused.
In the background, a car passed.
“I don’t believe Conrad expected me to understand what I was reading. But I do understand enough to know that money intended for patient care was moved through companies he controls.”
The recording continued for several minutes.
Names.
Dates.
Documents Elena would later help authenticate.
Genevieve explained that she planned to meet an outside attorney after securing the remaining records.
Then her expression changed.
Not fear.
Love.
“Please don’t shut everybody out if this becomes difficult. You cannot keep the children safe by teaching them the whole world is dangerous.”
The recording ended.
I stared at the blank screen.
Two years earlier, after the crash, I had raised walls and doubled security.
I had brought the children’s lives almost entirely inside the estate.
I had done exactly what she feared.
Elena sat beside the desk without speaking.
Finally, I said, “Do you know how she died?”
“I know what I found afterward.”
She opened another folder.
A vehicle maintenance invoice.
An email referring to an unscheduled service.
A payment from a Conrad-controlled company to the man who had worked on Genevieve’s car.
“These do not prove everything by themselves,” Elena said. “But the mechanic’s name appears in other payments. I gave the information to the investigator who contacted me after I was released.”
“What investigator?”
“Special Agent Rosa Delgado. She’s been looking at financial fraud involving the clinic. She didn’t have enough to connect your family to it.”
Prescott made the call.
This time, I stayed in the room and listened.
Delgado did not sound impressed by my name.
That helped.
She asked what we had, who had handled it, and whether the children were currently safe.
Then she told us not to contact Conrad or the mechanic.
“I need you to preserve evidence, Mr. Mercer. Not create another emergency.”
I looked at Genevieve’s frozen image on the screen.
“I understand.”
“Do you?”
I deserved the question.
“Yes.”
At three in the morning, Dr. Chen returned.
Her expression was serious.
“We’ve identified gaps in the transferred records. There are prior test results listed in the system that aren’t included in the current file.”
“Missing?”
“Or omitted. We’re requesting originals.”
“Can you help them?”
“I believe there are questions worth pursuing urgently. But they’re very sick, and I won’t pretend otherwise.”
I nodded.
“I want the truth.”
“Then we’ll keep giving it to you.”
Before dawn, Blythe woke.
She saw Elena standing near the doorway and blinked.
“Are you the new nurse?”
“No,” Elena said gently. “I’m a friend.”
“Daddy doesn’t have friends.”
I looked at my daughter.
“Thank you, sweetheart.”
She considered Elena.
“Do you know stories?”
“A few.”
“Not the one about the dragon. Daddy makes the dragon sound like taxes.”
Elena’s mouth trembled.
“I know one about a fox who borrowed the moon.”
Blythe shifted beneath the blanket.
“Jonah likes foxes.”
So Elena sat between their beds and told the story quietly.
No promise that everything would be fine.
No claim that courage could cure blood.
Just a fox, a borrowed moon, and two children listening.
I stood behind the glass while Prescott checked his phone.
Then his face hardened.
“What?”
“The household medical coordinator just requested permission to replace the overnight nurse.”
“Why?”
“Says Dr. Yates ordered it.”
I looked at the room.
Elena was still speaking softly.
Blythe’s eyes were closing.
“Has Chen approved the change?”
“No.”
“Then nobody changes anything.”
Prescott nodded.
A moment later, his phone rang.
On the screen was Conrad’s name.
This time, I let it ring.
May you like
We had finally begun asking questions.
I had no intention of letting him decide when we stopped.
