Chapter 10 - WHAT JULIETTE DIDThe tape began with static.
Then voices.
Mine.
Rebecca’s.
Juliette’s.
The recording had come from an old security system hidden in my father’s study.
Rebecca spoke first.
“Your mother wanted the trust reviewed.”
Juliette answered.
“My mother is dead.”
“She knew what Vale was doing.”
“You don’t know anything about her.”
“I’m her daughter.”
Silence.
Then Juliette laughed.
“You’re nobody.”
My stomach tightened.
Same cruelty.
Different room.
Rebecca continued.
“I don’t want your money.”
“Then why are you here?”
“To stop you from losing everything.”
Footsteps.
My voice.
“Who are you?”
Rebecca told me.
I remembered the shock.
Then another male voice appeared faintly.
Thomas Vale.
Nobody in the room remembered him being there.
Marcus rewound.
Vale was speaking on the phone.
“Destroy the east records.”
Then footsteps.
An alarm.
Juliette shouted.
Smoke entered the microphones.
The voices became chaotic.
Rebecca yelled:
“Caroline, get out!”
I heard myself running.
Then Juliette.
“Give me the trust papers!”
Me:
“Are you insane?”
A door slammed.
Then my fists.
“Juliette!”
The tape captured everything.
My screams.
Juliette crying.
Me pounding.
Then:
“I’m sorry.”
Footsteps running away.
Juliette covered her mouth.
“I remember.”
I looked at her.
For five years, I had imagined this moment.
I thought rage would come.
Instead, I saw my younger sister.
Twenty-seven.
Terrified.
Greedy.
Cowardly.
Human.
That did not excuse her.
But monsters were easier to hate than people.
The tape continued.
Rebecca’s voice.
“Where’s Caroline?”
Juliette:
“I don’t know!”
“She went east!”
“No, she got out!”
Rebecca:
“You’re lying.”
Then Vale.
“Both of you need to leave.”
A struggle.
A scream.
The recording ended.
Emma stood up.
“He hurt her.”
Marcus nodded.
“Likely.”
Juliette looked at me.
“I thought you would get out.”
I stared at her.
“You told firefighters I already had.”
“I was afraid they’d blame me.”
“That decision almost killed me.”
“I know.”
“No. You knew five years ago.”
Tears streamed down her face.
“Yes.”
“And when you learned I survived?”
“I panicked again.”
“You took my money.”
“Yes.”
“You stopped the DNA test.”
“Yes.”
“You called me a fraud.”
“Yes.”
She stopped defending herself.
For the first time.
That mattered more than any apology.
“Why?”
Her voice cracked.
“Because every lie made the next truth more expensive.”
The sentence sat between us.
She looked down.
“At first, I told myself I was protecting Dad.”
Then me.
“Then the company.”
Then herself.
“And eventually?”
“I was protecting the lie.”
I understood that too well.
Marcus turned off the tape.
“Juliette, you need an attorney.”
She shook her head.
“I’ve had attorneys my whole life.”
She looked at me.
“I think that’s part of the problem.”
Then Emma’s phone rang again.
Rebecca.
Emma answered.
“Mom?”
This time Rebecca spoke clearly.
“I’m ready.”
Emma cried.
“Where are you?”
Rebecca gave an address.
An abandoned church forty miles away.
Then she said:
“Bring Caroline.”
May you like
A pause.
“And don’t bring Douglas.”
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