Chapter 2 - The Man on the Speaker
Lily remained behind the railing until Julian ended the call.
She knew the voice from the phone.
She also knew she was not supposed to know it.
When she was younger, Daniel Westbrook had carried her on his shoulders during family picnics. He was Karen’s nephew and the chief legal officer of Westbrook Holdings. He sent Lily expensive birthday gifts and always told Elena that family loyalty mattered more than money.
Every Sunday, Daniel came to the villa.
He sat beside Julian.
They spoke quietly.
Whenever Elena entered, they changed the subject.
That night, Lily waited until the hallway was empty before slipping into her bedroom. She locked the door and played the recording through a pair of headphones.
Julian’s voice was clear.
“The company is mine now. This house is mine.”
Then Daniel’s voice answered through the phone.
“She can’t prove anything. I made sure of that.”
Lily replayed the sentence three times.
She did not fully understand what they had done, but she understood the fear in her mother’s voice.
Someone knocked.
Lily stopped the recording and hid the device beneath her pillow.
Elena entered.
Her eyes were red, but she smiled.
“Did you finish your homework?”
“No.”
“That’s all right.”
“Mom?”
Elena sat beside her.
“Yes?”
“Why doesn’t Grandma call?”
Elena looked down at her hands.
“Julian says the doctors don’t want her to be disturbed.”
“Do you believe him?”
Elena’s head lifted.
Lily had never asked her mother a question like that.
After several seconds, Elena whispered, “I don’t know what to believe anymore.”
Lily reached beneath the pillow.
She almost showed her the recorder.
Before she could, footsteps approached.
Elena stood quickly.
Julian appeared in the doorway.
“What are you two whispering about?”
“Homework,” Elena answered.
Julian looked at Lily’s unfinished workbook.
“Really?”
Elena moved between him and the bed.
“She’s tired.”
Julian held out his hand.
“Give me your phone.”
Elena did not move.
“My phone is downstairs.”
“I know. I’m talking to Lily.”
Lily’s stomach tightened.
“I don’t have one.”
“Your tablet.”
“It’s charging.”
“Where?”
“On the desk.”
Julian collected the tablet, checked its call history, and opened the messaging applications.
Lily watched him search.
Karen’s contact had disappeared two weeks earlier.
Julian handed the tablet back.
“You are not to contact anyone without permission.”
Lily nodded.
After he left, Elena closed the door.
“We need to be careful,” she whispered.
“Why?”
“Because Julian is frightened.”
“He doesn’t look frightened.”
“People like Julian look most confident when they are losing control.”
Elena crossed the room and opened the bottom drawer of Lily’s desk.
She removed an old photograph of Karen standing beside a private airplane.
On the back was a handwritten number.
“This belongs to Margaret Shaw,” Elena said. “She was your grandmother’s assistant for twenty-five years.”
“Can we call her?”
“Not from this house.”
Lily looked toward the ceiling camera in the hallway.
“Does Julian listen to everything?”
“I don’t know.”
Elena returned the photograph to the drawer.
“Tomorrow, your school is taking you to the science museum.”
Lily remembered the permission form.
“I don’t want to go.”
“You need to.”
“Why?”
“Because Margaret will be waiting near the dinosaur exhibit at noon.”
Lily stared at her mother.
Elena knelt in front of her.
“You must give her a message.”
“What message?”
“Tell her I need Karen to come home.”
Lily thought of Daniel’s voice on the recording.
“Should I tell her about Uncle Daniel?”
Elena’s face changed.
“What about Daniel?”
Lily reached under the pillow and removed the silver recorder.
She pressed play.
Daniel’s voice filled the room.
“She can’t prove anything. I made sure of that.”
Elena did not breathe.
When the recording ended, she took the device from Lily’s hand.
“Where did you get this?”
“Grandma gave it to me.”
“No. Where did you record this?”
“Behind the upstairs railing.”
Elena stood and locked the bedroom door.
She played the recording again.
Then she looked at her daughter with a mixture of fear and pride.
“Lily, you cannot let Julian find this.”
“I won’t.”
“You don’t understand. Daniel controls the company’s legal department. If he helped Julian, then every document we trusted could be false.”
“Will Grandma believe us?”
Elena held the recorder.
“Your grandmother always believes evidence.”
The next morning, Lily boarded the school bus with the device hidden inside a stuffed rabbit.
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She did not notice Julian standing behind an upstairs window.
She also did not notice him taking a photograph of the bus.
