Chapter 10 - Ten Minutes
The final recording continued.
Daniel sounded stunned.
"Why can't you call them?"
Amanda cried quietly.
"Because I signed things too."
"What things?"
"Transfers. Loan guarantees. Raymond said we'd replace the money before anyone noticed."
There was a long silence.
Then Daniel said, "You used Ethan's trust as collateral."
Amanda didn't deny it.
Ethan felt sick.
Mara paused the file.
"We need the rest."
They played it again.
Daniel told Amanda he was driving to Cincinnati anyway.
She begged him to wait.
Then a car horn sounded outside.
Raymond's voice shouted from somewhere beyond the recorder.
"Time's up."
The file ended.
Detective Cole reopened Daniel's crash investigation that morning.
The original wrecked SUV had been held in an insurance salvage yard because of an unresolved title dispute.
A forensic mechanic inspected it.
The report arrived two days later.
The rear brake line had been cut and loosely reattached so it would fail under pressure.
This was no longer an accident.
It was homicide.
Raymond became the primary suspect.
Amanda was charged with fraud, forgery, child endangerment, and conspiracy pending further review.
She was denied permission to contact Ethan.
Lily was different.
Family court placed her temporarily with her maternal aunt, Denise.
The night before Lily left Mara's guest apartment, she sat on Ethan's bed holding the stuffed fox Daniel had given her.
"Are we still brother and sister?"
Ethan looked at her.
"Yeah."
"Even if Mom says no?"
"Especially if she says no."
Lily smiled through tears.
Then she reached into the fox's torn seam.
"Daddy told me to hide this if Mom ever got mad about the black recorder."
She pulled out a tiny brass key.
Mara stared at it.
May you like
"What does that open?"
Lily whispered, "Daddy's other box."
