Chapter 5 - The Dead Woman’s Voice
Elias listened to the recording six times before admitting that the second voice belonged to Rebecca, Sophie’s mother, who had died in a sailing accident three years earlier.
The message was faint but unmistakable.
Rebecca said, “If anything happens to me, do not trust the person managing the house.”
Grant had managed the mansion for twenty-two years.
Camille claimed the audio was manipulated.
Her attorneys produced experts within hours, while Nora remained in a holding room waiting for a public defender.
The difference between wealth and poverty was no longer abstract.
Camille could purchase doubt.
Nora had to beg for time.
Elias secured Nora’s release, but not out of trust.
He said she was needed to help calm Sophie, who refused to speak to Camille or Grant.
When Nora returned to the mansion, reporters shouted questions about kidnapping and greed.
The family’s public-relations team instructed her to cover her face and enter through the basement.
She refused.
Nora walked through the front door in her teal uniform, forcing every camera to record that she was not ashamed.
Inside, Sophie ran to her and clung to her waist.
The child revealed that someone had awakened her before dawn, taken her phone, and promised she would see her mother again if she waited quietly in the hidden room.
She never saw the person’s face.
She remembered only a burgundy sleeve, black gloves, and the smell of cedar smoke.
Camille wore burgundy.
Elias wore black gloves.
Grant smoked cedar cigars.
The clues seemed designed to implicate all three.
Nora began to suspect that Sophie’s confinement was not only about the trust.
Someone wanted the household to turn against itself.
During a meeting in the library, the Whitmore attorney revealed that Elias was scheduled to sign documents transferring temporary control of Sophie’s inheritance to a new family foundation.
Camille would chair that foundation.
Grant would oversee the property assets.
Nora asked who had prepared the paperwork.
The attorney opened the file and went silent.
The documents had been drafted two years before Camille met Elias.
At the bottom of every page was Rebecca’s signature.
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Then Sophie entered carrying a child’s drawing of the hidden room.
In the corner, she had drawn a sixth person standing behind the wall.
