Chapter 2 - The Tablet And The Secret Recording
On the morning of my wedding, Caleb stood beside me holding the child-safe tablet his mother sometimes let him use for cartoons.
His small face looked unusually serious.
“There’s talking about you on here,” he said.
I crouched beside him.
“What kind of talking?”
He shrugged.
“Aunt Lenora and Daddy. They said your name. Mommy got sad after.”
My hands went cold.
I almost opened the recording immediately.
Instead, I looked down the hallway.
Lenora’s assistant was walking toward us.
I smiled, took Caleb’s hand, and acted as though nothing had happened.
Then I called three people.
My younger brother, Everett.
My longtime house manager, Rosalind Greene.
And Dean Wallace, the head of security for my company and the man coordinating security for the wedding.
“Meet me in the office behind the garage,” I told them. “Quietly. Don’t tell anyone.”
Caleb looked worried.
“Is Mommy going to be mad because I showed you?”
I hugged him.
“No, buddy. You did exactly what you were supposed to do. If something makes you worried, you tell someone you trust.”
Over his shoulder, through the open doorway, I saw Lenora crossing the upstairs landing.
Her hair was perfectly styled.
Her ivory gown caught the morning light.
She smiled down at me.
I smiled back.
For the first time since meeting her, her smile made me uneasy.
The security office was small, quiet, and far enough from the garden that nobody would notice us.
Everett arrived first.
Rosalind came in carrying the notebook she seemed to carry everywhere.
Dean closed the door.
I placed Caleb’s tablet on the desk.
“Play the most recent video.”
Dean found the file.
The image was mostly a ceiling and the edge of a coffee table, as if the tablet had been left running accidentally.
But the audio was clear.
Travis spoke first.
“After the ceremony, he’ll be emotional and tired. We give him the paperwork with everything else and tell him it’s part of the estate update.”
Then Lenora answered.
“As long as Paige stays away from him. She’s already isolated enough that if she suddenly causes trouble, everyone will assume she’s having another emotional episode.”
My stomach tightened.
Travis laughed quietly.
“Once he signs, we won’t need her cooperation.”
Nobody in the room spoke.
I felt as though I had spent two years walking through my own house with my eyes closed.
Then Rosalind opened her notebook.
“Mr. Bellamy, there are some things I think you need to know.”
Rosalind had worked for my family for twenty-four years.
She had known Paige since middle school.
Over the previous year, she had quietly written down conversations that made her uncomfortable.
Lenora asking where I kept old trust documents.
Lenora wanting details about insurance policies.
Travis asking when certain company shares could be transferred.
Private meetings in my study whenever I was traveling.
There were also withdrawals from an account Lenora and I shared for household expenses.
Not one enormous transaction.
Dozens of smaller ones.
Together, they represented hundreds of thousands of dollars.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I asked.
Rosalind’s expression tightened.
“I tried twice. You told me Lenora handled the household now and that I should speak to her.”
I remembered both conversations.
I wanted the floor to open beneath me.
May you like
Everett placed another folder on the desk.
“There’s more.”
