Page 65 of Love Over Time

I nodded. “She left a note. Took some of Mom’s jewelry and money. I assumed she had this too.”

His eyes turned a deep blue, and a half smile pulled on his lips. After the beating I’d given him downstairs, he wasn’t mad. Instead, he was intrigued. Was he trying to help me?

“I’m sorry I punched you. Obviously, you had nothing to do with this. It all came down on me so fast I haven’t been able to digest any of it.”

“Well, the good news is the will is valid. If you sue your uncle, it should be an easy win. Question is are you ready to move forward with it? The way I understood it, if you pull the trigger on this, Nikki’s sister will be the one having to bite the bullet, so to speak.” He sat at the end of the table. Nothing about him said crook to me. Yeah, I’d seen Dom dance the gray area with ease and little regard, but he wasn’t a petty thief. Even if Nikki had no problem playing me, I could tell he had no part in it.

“I’m not sure that’s the case anymore.” I fished the chip out of the back pocket of my jeans, my hand tight around it. I needed to trust him. Not everyone was like Jonathan. Dom was a friend. “There’s a recording that suggests my uncle was involved in my dad’s murder.”

Both his eyebrows shot up as he shuffled through more folders until he found the one with Lisa Morrow on the label. “Fuck, man. That’s hard core.” He flipped through the pages and all the bloody pictures. “He had an alibi, though. The maid swore he was in his study when it happened. She also swore she saw Lisa punching the victim’s chest…” He mumbled as he ran a thumb over his jaw. He met my gaze, his eyes darting between my hand and my face. “Is that it?”

I nodded and tossed it to him. He inserted the chip in the SD slot of his laptop and sat back on his chair. My stomach rolled, the voices already playing in my head. I trudged to the window, leaned on the frame, and focused on the dark sky and the city lights below us.

“Henry, this changes everything. We’ll need an expert to confirm this recording hasn’t been tampered with. But I’m willing to bet this is enough to get Lisa out. With this and your mom’s confession, we can put Jonathan away for a long time.”

I snorted and turned to face him. “Don’t count on it. Did you not hear her in the recording? She helped them that day.” I raised my voice.

“We can’t say that for sure. Listen to it. Something happened at the end there. A struggle maybe?”

“It’s just static.” I shook my head. “Maybe she had her phone in her purse when she recorded that.”

“Are you sure?”

My chest hitched. I’d been so mad at Nikki for leaving me I immediately transferred all that anger to Mom. Dom played the recording again. I sat in the chair next to him and listened. Really listened this time. There was shuffling again, like a wallet or something soft rubbing against the phone microphone. At the very end, I heard the softest gasp, a wheeze. It sounded like there was a struggle. Did Jonathan figure out Mom was recording the conversation? But if he did, how had it ended up in Mom’s security box?

The realization hit me like a runaway train. I jerked to my feet, mouth open. Fuck. Mom had nothing to do with Dad’s murder. Just like Lisa, Mom had been at the wrong place at the wrong time. I thought of Mom and the day I’d seen her at Cavalier Manor with Francesca seemingly tending to her. I’d been right about the fear I saw in her eyes. Jonathan and Francesca had kept her alive because of the recording she had. They’d made up all that bullshit about Mom not wanting to see me because they knew I’d figure out something wasn’t right. They’d known I’d try to take her away, which I had. I squeezed my eyes shut. When I opened them, the walls were covered in red spots. I braced my arms on my thighs, burying my face in my hands.

Why hadn’t Nikki sold the recording to Jonathan? He would’ve given half the Cavalier fortune in exchange for it. Had she done it to make it up to me, as she’d said in her letter? No. She’d done it because she’d known I’d use it to get Lisa out of jail. But what about Mom? What would Jonathan do if he found out I took the chip to the police? He’d have no reason to keep her alive.

This was out of the police’s hands. They’d had their shot, and they blew it when they put an innocent girl in prison for a crime she didn’t commit, sentencing Mom to a similar fate and upending the lives of two kids who couldn’t understand half of what was happening to them.

I had to end this with my uncle once and for all. It’d been a long time coming. Jonathan had to answer for his crimes.

Chapter Twenty-Five

His Dad’s Killer

Nikki

I ran to the end of the corridor as the warm and musty air brushed my face. When I reached the door, I turned the handle and shoved my body against it to crack it open. The same way I’d done when Henry and I were here a few weeks ago. But the door didn’t budge. I kicked it and took off running in the opposite direction toward the garden exit.

“All the doors are locked.” Tessa’s voice echoed against the walls, like a ghost from my dreams whispering in my ear.

The pictures of James in Lisa’s file came rushing to my mind, the recording, the attempt on Henry’s life when we were stupid enough to think she needed our help and went looking for her. How could she do this to her own family? I trudged back to her. She stood in the middle of the passageway, holding her elbows, her head cocked to the side.

“Why did you send Henry away? Do you have any idea how alone he’s been all these years?” I fired questions at her. I didn’t care for her answers. I wanted her to know what she’d done to her own son. She needed to feel the pain he’d felt all this time. In the same year, he’d lost his dad and mom.

“I didn’t send him away.” Her voice quavered. “Not at first, anyway.”

“You took everything from Henry. Why?”

“No.” Her hands were dark shapes wiping tears off her cheek I couldn’t see. “I didn’t. I did everything I could to help him.”

“I found the recording you kept in your security box. I heard everything. How could you? You helped them set up my sister to take the fault for what they did toyourhusband.”

“So that’s why I’m here? Francesca knows I no longer have the recording. Hipolita, you shouldn’t be here. Now Henry’s life and yours are in danger again. Don’t you see?” She paced the corridor. The shuffling of her feet created an echo at the end of the passageway. Every time she circled back, she’d go farther away from me, closer to the door that led to the foyer, and the spot where her husband was killed fifteen years ago.

“What happened, Tessa? Why did you turn your back on your son and Lisa?” I yelled at her. Heat flushed my cheeks. The yelling wasn’t helping. “Maybe you didn’t owe Lisa and me anything, but Henry is your only son. You left him!”

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