Chapter 8 - Patricia comes for the key)
Michael locked the front door.
David moved away from the window.
Emily’s first thought was Noah.
She crossed the living room and checked him.
Still sleeping.
She touched his hair.
Then someone knocked.
Three controlled taps.
Patricia’s knock.
Emily looked at Michael.
“I’m not opening it.”
“Good.”
Another knock.
Then Patricia called through the door.
“Emily.”
No response.
“I know David is there.”
David whispered, “She cannot know about the key.”
Emily slipped it into her jeans pocket.
Patricia spoke again.
“You are being manipulated.”
Michael almost laughed.
Emily gave him a look.
Patricia continued.
“Your father was mentally unstable toward the end of his life.”
Emily closed her eyes.
There it was.
Discredit the dead.
The same method every time.
Emily walked to the door but did not open it.
“You need to leave.”
“We need to talk.”
“No.”
“You have documents that belong to the company.”
“I have a letter from my father.”
Silence.
Then Patricia said, “He wrote many things.”
Emily felt rage rise.
“You told me he stopped contacting me.”
“He did.”
“You intercepted his letters.”
“That is absurd.”
“I have proof.”
Another pause.
Patricia’s voice changed.
Softer.
The voice she used when she wanted to sound like a mother.
“Emily, I understand why you’re angry.”
“No, you don’t.”
“I was trying to protect you.”
“From Dad?”
“Yes.”
“What did he do?”
Patricia hesitated.
Emily waited.
The lie needed time to assemble.
That alone answered everything.
“He became obsessive.”
Emily laughed quietly.
“About you stealing from his company?”
Silence.
David looked at her.
Michael’s eyebrows rose.
Patricia spoke.
“You do not understand corporate finance.”
“Apparently Martin does.”
The silence deepened.
Emily knew she had hit the right place.
“Was he on the recording too?”
Patricia’s voice hardened.
“Give me the key.”
Emily froze.
David mouthed, How?
Patricia continued.
“David always loved theatrics.”
Emily looked at him.
David shook his head.
Patricia said, “There is a safe deposit box.”
Michael whispered, “She already knew.”
Emily realized he was right.
Patricia had spent four years searching for the original documents.
She had known a box existed.
She simply did not have the key.
Until now.
“You’re not getting it.”
Patricia’s calm disappeared.
“You have no idea what is inside that box.”
“Yes, I do.”
“No, you don’t.”
“You stole our inheritance.”
“That company would have collapsed if I had not taken control.”
“Then why hide it?”
“Because your father weaponized money during a divorce.”
“He left it to his daughters.”
“He was trying to punish me.”
“Everything is about you.”
Patricia struck the door with her palm.
Noah stirred.
Emily’s anger became immediate.
“Leave.”
Patricia lowered her voice.
“Open the door.”
“No.”
“Emily.”
“You frightened my son.”
“I came to protect him.”
Emily stared at the wood between them.
“You hit him with your car.”
The sentence seemed to strip away every remaining illusion.
Patricia did not reply.
Emily continued.
“You tried to blame him.”
Nothing.
“You told Dana to move his scooter.”
Nothing.
“You tried to buy my silence.”
Nothing.
“And now you’re outside his home because you want a key.”
Michael stood beside Emily.
She felt his presence.
Not controlling.
Not rescuing.
Simply there.
Emily realized how unfamiliar that felt.
Patricia spoke again.
“If you open that box, you will destroy this family.”
Emily almost smiled.
“No.”
She placed her hand on the lock.
“You did that.”
Police lights appeared outside.
David exhaled.
“I called them.”
Patricia stepped away from the door.
Martin said something Emily could not hear.
Within two minutes officers were speaking to them outside.
Emily did not open the door until Patricia was gone.
Officer Holloway remained behind.
“You need to know something,” he said.
Emily’s stomach tightened.
“What?”
“The drive from the SUV was damaged.”
David frowned.
“How?”
“We don’t know yet.”
Emily stared.
“Damaged as in unreadable?”
“Possibly.”
Her heart sank.
“And the accident footage?”
“We have Mr. Ellison’s copy.”
“The other footage?”
“That may be more difficult.”
Emily thought of Patricia’s panic.
Martin’s warning.
Dana’s statement.
If the SUV archive was gone, the recording about the inheritance might be gone too.
Holloway added, “Our technician believes the damage happened before the device entered evidence.”
Emily looked up.
“What?”
“There are signs someone attempted to overwrite portions of it.”
David went still.
“When?”
“We can’t say yet.”
Emily remembered Patricia lunging toward the center console.
Dana whispering about unplugging something.
Then another detail returned.
Before the SUV chimed, Dana had disappeared around the passenger side for several seconds.
Emily felt sick.
“Dana.”
Holloway watched her.
“What about her?”
“She knew how the system worked.”
Michael said, “You think she tried to erase it?”
Emily did not answer.
Her phone rang.
Dana.
Again.
Emily answered.
Dana did not say hello.
May you like
She whispered one sentence.
“I know where Mom keeps the backup.”
