Chapter 5
For one second, nobody spoke.
Then Aunt Rachel said, “Gone how?”
Officer Morales was already dialing.
“She was supposed to remain at the residence while detectives processed the scene. A patrol unit was outside.”
“Supposed to?” I repeated.
He held up a finger as someone answered.
“This is Morales. Confirm Carter residence status.”
He listened.
His face hardened.
“When?”
Another pause.
“How did she get past you?”
Aunt Rachel covered Noah’s ears, but not fast enough.
I heard the answer through the quiet room.
Back door.
Fence.
Neighbor’s camera caught a dark sedan.
Melissa had slipped away like smoke.
Morales ended the call.
“Lock all doors,” he said.
Aunt Rachel moved immediately.
I stood frozen beside the table.
“She knows we have the safe stuff.”
“She may suspect,” Morales said.
“No. She knows.”
“How?”
“She saw me come out of Dad’s room. She looked at my hoodie.”
Morales cursed under his breath.
Noah started crying again.
“I’m sorry,” I told him. “I’m sorry.”
He shook his head hard.
“You saved the camera.”
“That’s not enough.”
“It might be,” Morales said. “But we need more.”
Aunt Rachel returned from checking the back door.
“What more could you possibly need?”
“The recording Melissa gave detectives,” he said. “If it is fake, we need to prove it fast. If the financial documents connect to her, we need the original source. Daniel’s copies help, but a defense attorney will need authentication.”
“He is innocent,” I said.
“I believe that.”
“Then why is he still locked up?”
“Because believing is not the same as proving.”
I hated him for saying it.
I hated him because he was right.
Aunt Rachel sat beside Noah and pulled him into her lap.
He was too big for it, but he curled there anyway.
Morales looked at the burner phone.
“Did you turn this on?”
“No.”
“Don’t. Not yet.”
“Why?”
“It may receive messages from whoever Melissa is connected to. We need a warrant, or Daniel’s consent if it was his device.”
“Dad told me to take it.”
“That helps.”
He took a photo of the phone but did not touch it.
Then Aunt Rachel’s landline rang.
All of us jumped.
Nobody used that phone anymore.
It rang again.
Aunt Rachel stared at it.
Morales motioned for silence.
He answered and put it on speaker.
“Hello?”
For a moment, only breathing filled the line.
Then Melissa’s voice whispered, “Ava.”
My skin crawled.
Morales grabbed his recorder and started it.
I looked at him.
He nodded once.
I forced myself to speak.
“What do you want?”
Melissa laughed softly.
No tears now.
No trembling.
Just the real woman.
“You stole from my safe.”
“It was Dad’s safe.”
“Everything in that house became mine when he married me.”
Aunt Rachel’s eyes flashed.
Melissa continued, “Listen carefully. Give me the phone and the envelopes, and maybe your father comes home.”
“You framed him.”
“I protected myself.”
“You beat Noah.”
“Children exaggerate.”
Noah buried his face against Aunt Rachel.
I wanted to reach through the phone and claw her voice out of the wire.
“You called the police on Dad.”
“He should have kept his promises.”
“What promises?”
Silence.
Then Melissa said, “Ask him about the night your mother died.”
My throat closed.
“You’re lying.”
“Am I?”
Morales leaned closer to the phone.
Melissa laughed again.
“Oh, Officer Morales. I know you’re there.”
His face went still.
“You should turn yourself in, Melissa.”
“Why? So Daniel can cry his way out of everything?”
“You hurt two children.”
“And Daniel hurt me first.”
“That is a statement you can give in person.”
“No,” she said. “I think I’ll let the evidence speak.”
The line clicked.
A dial tone filled the kitchen.
I grabbed the edge of the table.
“What did she mean?”
Morales did not answer.
Aunt Rachel looked away.
“What did she mean?” I demanded.
Aunt Rachel’s eyes filled with tears.
“There were things after your mother’s crash that never made sense.”
My chest hurt.
“Like what?”
She pressed her fingers to her mouth.
“Your mother called me the night she died.”
I felt the room go quiet around me.
“You never told me that.”
“You were thirteen. Noah was five. You had just lost her. Daniel asked me not to say anything until he understood it himself.”
“What did Mom say?”
Aunt Rachel looked at Morales.
He nodded gently.
“She said she thought someone had been in her car.”
I stopped breathing.
“She said the brakes felt wrong two days before. Daniel told her he would take it to the mechanic, but she had a shift and drove anyway.”
“No,” I whispered.
“She also said Melissa had been at your house that afternoon.”
I stared at her.
“Melissa knew Dad before Mom died?”
Aunt Rachel’s silence was the answer.
The whole story I had believed about my family cracked down the middle.
Dad met Melissa at a grief group eight months after Mom died.
That was what he told us.
That was what Melissa told us.
A woman who understood loss.
A woman who had no one.
A woman who came into our house carrying casseroles and gentle smiles.
But if she had been there before Mom died, then everything was wrong.
Morales picked up one of the envelopes.
“Daniel found proof Melissa worked briefly for his company’s insurance broker. She processed policy updates. She had access to records.”
Aunt Rachel whispered, “Elise’s life insurance.”
“And Daniel’s,” Morales said.
Noah lifted his head.
“She hurt Mom?”
Nobody answered.
That answer was worse.
I ran to the bathroom and threw up.
When I came back, Aunt Rachel was crying.
Morales was on the phone again, requesting an emergency trace on the landline call.
Then the burner phone on the table buzzed.
Once.
Twice.
The screen lit up.
Unknown Number:
You should have burned the letters, Mel. Daniel kept copies too?
Another message appeared.
If the girl has the phone, end this tonight.
Noah whimpered.
Aunt Rachel locked both arms around him.
Morales pulled his weapon and moved toward the window.
Headlights swept across the curtains.
May you like
A car slowed outside the house.
Then the porch light exploded.
