Chapter 9 - Trained
Ethan replayed the sentence until Richard reached over and closed the laptop.
"Enough."
"No," Ethan said. "I need to hear it."
"You heard it."
Ethan stared at the black screen.
I trained him to.
The cruelty was not only in what Sophia had done to Richard.
It was in the accuracy of the sentence.
For years, Sophia had told Ethan that his father was controlling, cold, judgmental, and threatened by his son's independence.
Sometimes those things had even been partly true.
Richard could be controlling.
He could be cold.
He had spent a lifetime believing money could solve emotional problems if applied early enough.
That made Sophia's lies easy to build.
"She used real things," Ethan said.
Richard nodded.
"The best lies usually do."
Dana enhanced the second voice.
Julian Mercer.
Then another recovered fragment played.
Julian: "The doctor signed everything?"
Sophia: "Crane did his part. Monday Richard is incompetent. Ethan becomes trustee. Then Ethan signs the bridge loan."
Julian: "And after that?"
A pause.
Sophia: "After that, Ethan doesn't matter either."
Ethan stopped breathing.
The handwritten note flashed in his mind.
R AFTER DINNER.
E AFTER SIGNATURE.
Richard stood so fast his chair scraped backward.
"Your house. Now."
"Why?"
"Because if Sophia has been drugging me, she may have prepared something for you too."
They searched the kitchen first.
Nothing.
Then Ethan opened the cabinet where Sophia kept vitamins and supplements.
A bottle labeled SLEEP SUPPORT sat behind protein powder.
Dana put on gloves.
"Do you take these?"
"Sophia gives me one when I can't sleep."
Richard swore under his breath.
Dana bagged the bottle.
Then Ethan noticed a small white envelope taped beneath the shelf.
Inside was a folded instruction sheet from a private pharmacy.
Two patient initials were printed at the top.
R.W.
May you like
And E.W.
The dosage beside Ethan's initials was twice Richard's.
