Page 108 of Betraying Family Vows
The TV flickers, and suddenly we can all see the laptop screen on it. He moves around, and Dimitri logs into the software he'd shown me back in Piraeus, the one that mirrored Cosmo's phone.
Even though I've already seen the files, the recordings, the evidence, a sick twist of anxiety coils in my stomach as everything pops up again.
He leans over the screen, checking things.
"Thank God for the program," Dimitri says, typing on the keyboard. "Even though they took the actual phone, the software copied everything. We have what we need."
"And how was this unlocked?" Theo asks.
Dimitri glances over his shoulder. "She unlocked it. Was her mother's birthday."
I keep my focus on Dimitri, but out of the corner of my eye, I see Ares and Theo glance at me and then back at the TV.
"And without the phone, you sure everything's here?" Ares asks.
"Yes." Dimitri's gaze meets mine briefly before he looks back to his brothers. "It's all here."
He looks back and navigates to the first folder, and I feel like I'm going to throw up.
Here we go.
"I'll play the voice memos we found first," he says, clicking on the file.
The sound of my father's voice fills the room. I still can't believe I never knew the real man behind the carefully constructed image he'd shown the world. I guess my mom didn't either.
We listen to the one about making payments, then the one about the six million and more needs to be met. Each one drives it home that Cosmo was being forced.
After the voice memos, Dimitri goes through the copies of the financial records I found showing the increasing payments to H. S. Holdings and the pressure mounting on my father, the desperate attempts to satisfy whoever was pulling his strings.
Once he goes through everything, Dimitri exits out back to the main screen and turns to his brothers.
"Athena was also able to find that S, via his H. S. Holdings company, liquidated Cosmo's accounts right after his death."
Ares sits back, taking in everything. I can see Theo doing the same.
"It's a lot, but we also have a number so?—"
"What's that?" Ares asks suddenly, cutting off Dimitri.
"There," he continues, pointing to a file on the screen.
Dimitri turns and looks at it. "This one? Not sure. The software says it's not addressed to anyone. Draft text."
"That's a fucking large draft," Ares says. "It's got something. Click it."
Dimitri hesitates only a second before opening the file. His eyes scan the contents. "Shit," he says and then glances at me. "This is something we didn't hear before."
"Play it," Theo says, leaning forward.
Dimitri clicks it.
We sit in silence as the audio buffer loads.
Then Cosmo's voice again, so close, so clear it feels like he's sitting in the room.
"If you're hearing this, that means I'm dead."
No one moves.
