The room went completely silent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For the first time in years, Edric Kaine didn’t look confident.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He looked uncertain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dr. Marcus Cooper stood just outside the examination room with the door locked behind him. A security officer was beside him, speaking quietly into a radio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Somewhere in the hallway, a phone rang.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Footsteps approached.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Continue reading on next page\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Edric glanced toward the door.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cUnlock it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dr. Cooper didn’t move.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDoctor,\u201d Edric continued, his voice becoming sharper, \u201cI said unlock the door.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou’ll have plenty of opportunities to explain yourself,\u201d Dr. Cooper replied. \u201cJust not to me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Edric’s face hardened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our mother, Brenda, stood frozen near the wall. She had spent years knowing exactly what to say whenever someone asked questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The girls fell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They were clumsy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They fought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They exaggerate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They have problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But now there were two doctors, a security officer, and eventually police officers who would hear a very different version of the story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chloe opened her eyes fully.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFaye?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019m here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She tried to sit up, but the nurse gently stopped her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cStay still.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chloe looked toward the door.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIs he there?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I nodded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Her expression changed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For years, that single question had terrified me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Is he there?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now, somehow, the answer didn’t frighten me in the same way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Because this time, he wasn’t in control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A police officer entered the room a few minutes later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He introduced himself calmly and asked us what had happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I stared at him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Words wouldn’t come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My entire body seemed to remember things my mind had spent years trying to forget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then Chloe reached across the narrow space between our beds and took my hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe don’t have to protect them anymore,\u201d she whispered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That was when I finally spoke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHe didn’t just hurt us tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The officer looked at me carefully.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHow long?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I swallowed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYears.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His expression changed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He pulled a chair closer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cTake your time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So I told him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Not everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Not yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I told him about the locked doors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The threats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The rules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The way Edric always made sure there were no witnesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I told him how our mother stopped answering our uncle’s calls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And then I told him something that made the officer sit forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHe doesn’t know we have recordings.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Edric heard me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His face went pale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat recordings?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I didn’t answer him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For once, I didn’t have to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The police searched the house later that night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They found the old phone exactly where I had hidden it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Beneath the loose floorboard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The screen was cracked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The battery was nearly dead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the recordings were there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hundreds of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Conversations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Threats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Arguments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pieces of the life Edric had worked so hard to hide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There were even recordings of our mother discussing how to explain injuries if anyone ever became suspicious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The investigators listened in silence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then one of them looked at me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDid anyone else know about this?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I thought about Uncle Alan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMaybe.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The officer raised an eyebrow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMy uncle warned us before he was deployed. He said the money Dad left us could attract the wrong people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat money?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I explained the trust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The investigator exchanged a glance with his partner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That detail changed the direction of the investigation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Until then, Edric had looked like a cruel man who had controlled two teenagers inside his own home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now investigators had another question:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Why had he been so interested in our father’s finances?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The next morning, they searched through the financial records.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That’s when they found the first discrepancy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A transfer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Small amounts at first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then larger ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Money had been moving from an account connected to our family trust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We had never authorized it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And neither had our father.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Edric had apparently believed he could keep everything hidden until we turned eighteen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But he had made one mistake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He had assumed we would never survive long enough to ask questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He was wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Three days later, Detective Harris returned to the hospital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He carried a folder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere\u2019s something you need to know,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chloe and I looked at each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He opened the folder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYour uncle Alan contacted us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My heart stopped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIs he okay?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHe’s alive. He’s been trying to reach your mother for months.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I stared at him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBut Mom told us he stopped calling.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHe never stopped.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chloe’s eyes filled with tears.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Detective Harris continued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYour mother blocked his number. She also changed the contact information on several family accounts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I felt something inside me break.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Not because I was surprised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Because I wasn’t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For years, part of me had wondered whether our uncle had simply abandoned us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now I knew he hadn’t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We had been isolated from him deliberately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The next surprise came that afternoon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A lawyer arrived at the hospital carrying documents from our father’s estate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He explained that the trust was scheduled to become fully accessible when Chloe and I turned eighteen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our birthday was less than six weeks away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Edric had spent years believing the money would eventually belong to him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It wouldn’t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the lawyer had another document.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOne more thing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He handed it to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was a letter from our father.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A letter neither Chloe nor I had ever seen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The date was written at the top.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Two months before his death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I unfolded it with shaking hands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There were only a few paragraphs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But one sentence made my heart pound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you’re reading this, something happened that I hoped never would.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n I looked at Chloe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She moved closer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We read the rest together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Our father had apparently suspected that someone might try to interfere with the trust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He had arranged for certain financial records to be released automatically if neither of us confirmed access after turning eighteen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And there was one name mentioned repeatedly in the documents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Not Edric.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Not Brenda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Someone else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Someone we had never heard of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The lawyer closed the folder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYour father believed there was a person connected to his company who might have a motive to access the trust.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWho?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The lawyer hesitated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then he gave us the name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Chloe’s fingers tightened around mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Because we recognized it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It belonged to someone who had visited our house several times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Someone Edric had always introduced as an old friend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Someone who had been there at Dad’s funeral.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And someone who had disappeared immediately after our father’s death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For the first time, I understood that the nightmare we’d been living through might have been only one part of a much larger story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The police had stopped Edric.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Our mother was being questioned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The recordings were safe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the mystery surrounding our father’s death had just begun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And somewhere outside that hospital, someone now knew that Chloe and I were still alive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Someone who had believed the secrets would die with us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The room went completely silent. For the first time in years, Edric Kaine didn’t look confident. He looked uncertain. Dr.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":28351,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tbdig.com\/sirbenet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tbdig.com\/sirbenet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tbdig.com\/sirbenet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tbdig.com\/sirbenet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tbdig.com\/sirbenet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28350"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/tbdig.com\/sirbenet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28350\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28353,"href":"https:\/\/tbdig.com\/sirbenet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28350\/revisions\/28353"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tbdig.com\/sirbenet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tbdig.com\/sirbenet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tbdig.com\/sirbenet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tbdig.com\/sirbenet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}