Chapter 5 - The Recording with Gideon’s Voice
Marcus survived.
He had been struck in the back of the head and injected with a sedative.
When he woke, he told police Amelia had contacted him two days before her death.
She asked him to protect the archive if anything happened.
Marcus did not retrieve it immediately because he believed the lake house was being watched.
After learning about the cameras inside Gideon’s home, he used the silver key to open Amelia’s box.
The drive was inside.
Before he could take it to federal agents, someone attacked him.
“Why did Amelia trust you instead of me?” Gideon asked.
Marcus looked at him with exhausted sadness.
“Because she believed your company had already been compromised.”
“That does not answer the question.”
“She found money moving through Mercer Aeronautics into Northstar accounts.”
Gideon stared at him.
“I never authorized payments.”
“Your signature was on them.”
“Forged.”
“Possibly.”
The hesitation mattered.
Marcus had not fully trusted him either.
Investigators examined the financial records.
More than twenty million dollars moved from Mercer Aeronautics through shell companies linked to Daniel Cole.
Each transaction carried Gideon’s digital authorization.
Security logs showed the approvals came from his office computer.
The same office where hidden cameras watched his screen.
Isla or Daniel could have captured his credentials.
But the earliest payment occurred before Isla entered the house.
It happened six months before Amelia died.
Detective Ortiz recovered audio from an old Northstar server.
The recording contained two male voices.
One belonged to Daniel.
The other sounded exactly like Gideon.
Daniel said, “Your wife is getting too close.”
Gideon’s voice answered, “Then make sure she stops.”
The recording ended.
Gideon listened three times.
“I never said that.”
Audio experts found no obvious editing.
The voice pattern matched him.
Daniel’s attorney released the recording to the press.
Within hours, headlines suggested Gideon ordered his wife’s murder.
Mercer Aeronautics shares collapsed.
The defense contract was suspended.
Police did not arrest him, but he became a person of interest.
Child protection officials questioned whether Maya and Toby should remain in his care.
Gideon’s world, built through years of work, began disintegrating in a single day.
None of that frightened him as much as Maya’s expression.
She looked at him differently after hearing the recording.
“Did you hurt Mommy?”
“No.”
“Is that really your voice?”
“It sounds like me.”
“Then how do I know?”
He knelt in front of her.
“You do not have to believe me because I am your father. You should wait for the truth.”
Maya studied him.
It was an answer no adult had given her before.
“Will you leave again?”
“Not by choice.”
“Police might take you?”
“Yes.”
Her eyes filled.
“Who takes care of Toby?”
“You, Emma, and Toby will stay somewhere protected with people Detective Ortiz trusts.”
Maya’s face tightened.
“I don’t want to be the grown up anymore.”
Gideon closed his eyes.
She had been caring for Toby, feeding Emma, hiding fear, and predicting Isla’s moods.
At eight years old, she believed protection was her responsibility.
“It is not your job to raise your brother.”
“Then whose job is it?”
“Mine.”
“You weren’t here.”
“I know.”
She began crying.
Not quietly this time.
“You always say that after.”
He pulled her into his arms only when she moved toward him.
“I cannot change the nights I missed.”
“No.”
“But I can stop pretending money made up for them.”
Maya pressed her face against his suit.
Behind them, Toby slept beneath a warm blanket.
Emma sat near the window with a police advocate.
The family Gideon thought he possessed had never existed.
What remained was smaller, wounded, and finally honest.
Audio specialists reexamined the recording.
A hidden frequency appeared beneath Gideon’s voice.
It was generated by an early voice cloning system developed by Northstar.
The recording was artificial.
Daniel created it years before modern voice cloning became publicly common.
To train the model, he needed hours of Gideon’s private speech.
The house surveillance had started before Isla.
Someone else installed the first devices.
Marcus reviewed old renovation invoices.
The work was approved by Amelia.
But the contractor signature belonged to her brother, Ethan Walsh.
Ethan had died in the same boating explosion as Amelia.
At least, that was what Gideon had been told.
No body was ever recovered.
Then Detective Ortiz received an airport alert.
A man using the name Ethan Walsh had entered the United States from Canada that morning.
May you like
His passport photograph showed Amelia’s supposedly dead brother.
Continue to the next part: Amelia’s brother returns alive and claims Gideon’s wife survived the explosion too.
