Chapter 3 - the voice inside the walls
Madison’s smile vanished.
Emily turned toward the intercom speaker mounted above the mudroom door.
The system had not worked in years.
Thomas had meant to replace it before his final business trip.
“Who was that?” Emily asked.
Madison crossed the room and ripped the intercom panel from the wall.
The wire behind it had been newly replaced.
“Old interference,” she said.
“Interference does not know your name.”
“You are medicated.”
“I know what I heard.”
Madison dropped the panel into the trash.
“Then perhaps your doctors released you too early.”
Emily raised the printed email.
“And perhaps my attorney should see this.”
For the first time, Madison looked uncertain.
“You would create a public custody dispute while you cannot walk?”
“I would tear this house apart brick by brick before I let you take my daughter.”
“Emotional statements like that are exactly what a judge will consider.”
Emily rolled closer.
“Get out of my way.”
Madison moved aside, but not before whispering, “By Friday, you will understand that love is not the same as legal fitness.”
Emily returned to the recovery room and locked the door.
Lily was sitting on the bed, hugging her rabbit.
“Did you hear the voice?” Emily asked.
Lily nodded.
“Who is he?”
“I don’t know.”
“Have you heard him before?”
“Sometimes at night.”
Emily called Marcus Vale.
He had been the Hart family attorney for eleven years, though Madison had repeatedly told Emily that he was unavailable.
Marcus answered on the second ring.
“Emily?”
The shock in his voice confirmed that he had not been told she was home.
“I need you at the house.”
“Today?”
“Now.”
A pause followed.
“Is Madison there?”
“Yes.”
“Do not sign anything.”
Emily looked at the power-of-attorney folder on the table.
“Why?”
“Because she contacted my office two weeks ago and said you had suffered permanent cognitive damage.”
Emily’s fingers turned cold.
“She said what?”
“She demanded access to Thomas’s estate file. I refused. The next day, someone attempted to log into our private document portal using your credentials.”
“Did they get in?”
“No. But they knew the answer to two security questions.”
Only three people could have known those answers.
Emily.
Thomas.
And Madison.
“Marcus, she filed something concerning Lily.”
“I know.”
Emily gripped the phone.
“How?”
“A court clerk called me this morning because my name appears on a supporting declaration.”
“Did you sign it?”
“No.”
The room became silent except for Lily’s uneven breathing.
“What does the declaration say?”
“That Thomas expressed concerns about the adoption before his death and appointed Madison as Lily’s preferred guardian in the event of your incapacity.”
“He never did that.”
“I know.”
“Then the filing is false.”
“Parts of it are false. Parts of it were copied from legitimate estate documents.”
Emily looked at the ceiling again.
“What parts?”
“Your address, trust numbers, Thomas’s old passport details, and a private amendment no one outside the family should possess.”
“The wooden box.”
“What wooden box?”
Emily told him about the security recording, the locked study, and the voice on the intercom.
Marcus lowered his voice.
“Emily, leave the house.”
“I can’t.”
“Take Lily and go somewhere Madison cannot access.”
“I am in a wheelchair. Madison controls the elevator, the vehicles, and the staff.”
“Call the police.”
“With what evidence? A packed suitcase and a forged declaration?”
“That is enough to begin.”
“It may not be enough to stop Friday.”
Marcus exhaled.
“I am coming.”
“Bring copies of every document Thomas signed during the final year of his life.”
“Why?”
“Because Madison showed Lily something with his name on it.”
When the call ended, Lily climbed down from the bed.
“I know where the man talks from.”
Emily looked at her.
“Where?”
“The little room behind Daddy’s office.”
Thomas’s study occupied the eastern corner of the second floor. Behind its bookshelves was a narrow storage room originally built for wiring and security equipment.
Emily had forgotten it existed.
“Can you get inside?” she asked.
Lily shook her head.
“Aunt Madison changed the door.”
“Did you see the man?”
“Only his shoe.”
“What did it look like?”
“Black. Shiny. And it had mud on it.”
Emily thought of the house staff, delivery workers, contractors.
Then Lily added, “It was the same shoe from the hospital.”
Emily went still.
“What hospital?”
“When you were asleep, a man came to your room. Aunt Madison told me he was a doctor.”
“Did he touch me?”
“He put something in the drawer beside your bed.”
“What?”
Lily reached into the pocket of her yellow dress and removed a small silver object.
A memory card.
“I took it before he came back.”
Emily held it in her palm.
A strip of white tape had been attached to one side.
May you like
Written across it were three words.
DRIVEWAY CAMERA ORIGINAL.
