Chapter 4 - The Mother Who Repeated the Lie
Rachel held the music player against her chest.
Two officers raised their weapons.
“Put the device on the floor,” Detective Cole ordered.
She shook her head.
“You do not know what Gareth will do.”
“He has escaped,” Cole said. “That is why we need the evidence.”
“You cannot protect them every second.”
Emma looked at her mother.
“Neither did you.”
Rachel’s face crumpled.
“I tried.”
“You stood in the room.”
“I know.”
“You told him which rules we broke.”
“I know.”
“You helped him lie to doctors and teachers.”
Rachel covered her mouth.
Lydia turned her face toward the wall.
The rejection seemed to wound Rachel more than Emma’s anger.
Dr. Shaw approached slowly.
“Rachel, place the device down.”
“There is a recording inside it that Gareth cannot know exists.”
“Which recording?”
Rachel looked toward the officers.
“The night Daniel’s car went through the barrier.”
Emma stopped breathing.
Rachel sat in the chair beside the door and placed the player on her lap.
She explained that Gareth had entered their lives before Daniel’s death.
He worked as a financial consultant for one of Daniel’s companies. Rachel began confiding in him during problems in her marriage.
Daniel had become secretive and frightened. He checked the windows repeatedly and moved the twins between schools without explanation.
Rachel believed he was paranoid.
Gareth told her Daniel was hiding money and preparing to take the girls away.
“I gave Gareth Daniel’s travel schedule,” Rachel whispered.
Emma’s hands went cold.
“You helped him find Dad.”
“I thought Gareth was going to confront him about the trust.”
“What happened?”
“Daniel’s brakes failed.”
Rachel received a call from Gareth after midnight. Daniel had survived the crash but suffered a severe head injury.
Gareth told her the accident would be traced back to them unless she followed instructions.
He moved Daniel to Cedar Ridge under a false name.
“Why not call the police?” Lydia asked weakly.
“Gareth showed me a video of Emma sleeping.”
Emma felt sick.
“He had entered the house while I was at the hospital. He said one phone call would make both of you disappear.”
Rachel agreed to identify a damaged body from another accident as Daniel.
The coffin remained closed.
She signed the death certificate.
Months later, she married Gareth because he claimed the twins would be safer if he lived in the house.
“You married the man who tried to kill Dad,” Emma said.
“I believed staying close allowed me to watch him.”
“You watched him beat us.”
Rachel’s excuses stopped.
“Yes.”
The word was barely audible.
“I became more afraid of what he might do than ashamed of what I was allowing.”
Dr. Shaw spoke quietly.
“Fear explains behavior. It does not erase responsibility.”
Rachel nodded.
“I know.”
She handed the music player to Emma.
“The last recording was made by Daniel after the crash.”
“How did it get on the device?”
“He gave it to a nurse at Cedar Ridge. She found me two years ago.”
“The missing nurse?”
Rachel nodded.
Her name was Hannah Price.
She said Daniel had regained consciousness and remembered Gareth causing the crash.
Before Hannah could testify, she vanished.
Rachel hid Daniel’s recording on the old music player because Gareth constantly searched modern electronics.
“Why did you never tell us?” Lydia asked.
“Because the recording contains the name of the person who helped Gareth escape the first investigation.”
Detective Cole looked at her.
“Who?”
Rachel pressed play.
Daniel’s weakened voice came through the speaker.
“If anything happens to Hannah Price or my daughters, Detective Marcus Cole is responsible.”
Everyone turned toward Cole.
For one second, he looked stunned.
Then he reached for his gun.
Dr. Shaw slammed the locked treatment room door between him and the twins.
May you like
Cole fired through the glass.
Continue to the next part: The detective assigned to protect Emma and Lydia is exposed as the officer who helped Gareth hide Daniel.
