Chapter 5: The Recording My Mother Buried
Nia stared at the message.
Tasha snatched the second phone from her purse and tried to hide it behind her back.
“Give it to me,” Nia said.
“Please, let me explain.””
“Give me the phone.””
Tasha's eyes filled with tears.
“Nia, you don't understand what you're getting into.””
“Then explain it to me!””
Tasha looked toward the house.
The curtains in the living room had shifted. Someone was watching them from inside.
She grabbed Nia's wrist and pulled her toward the car.
“Get in. We can't stay here.””
Nia resisted.
“Not until you tell me why Denise is texting you about a recording.””
Tasha's face crumpled.
“Because I have it.””
The words silenced Nia.
“What recording?””
“The recording Dad made the night he died.””
Nia felt the world narrow around her.
“You told me you didn't know what happened that night.””
“I told you I didn't know who caused the accident.””
“That's not the same thing.””
“I know.””
Tasha looked down at the phone.
“I've been lying to you. I'm sorry.””
Nia wanted to scream.
Instead, she opened the passenger door and climbed inside.
“Start talking.””
Tasha got behind the wheel but didn't start the engine.
For a long moment, she sat staring through the windshield.
Then she unlocked the second phone.
The screen displayed a list of audio files.
One was named *DAD—LAST CALL*.
Another was labeled *HAWTHORNE*.
The third had no name at all.
Tasha tapped the first file.
Their father's voice filled the car.
“Nobody is supposed to know about this meeting. If you're hearing this, it means I couldn't get the evidence to Jonathan.””
Nia covered her mouth.
His voice was older than she remembered, tired but unmistakably his.
“Denise has been moving money through shell companies. She's using Evelyn's name, and I think she's been working with someone inside the family. I've tried to stop the transfers, but the signatures on the latest documents aren't mine.””
A pause followed.
Then their father continued.
“I made a mistake years ago. I trusted the wrong person, and now my daughters are in danger because of it.””
Nia turned toward Tasha.
“What does he mean?””
Tasha shook her head.
“I don't know. I've never heard the whole recording.””
“Why not?””
“Because Mom told me to destroy it.””
Nia stared at her.
“You had this for six years and never listened to it?””
“I listened to the beginning. Then I got scared.””
Their father's voice returned.
“If anything happens to me, Evelyn knows the truth about Darius. She knows why Denise wanted him, and she knows what happened to the money.””
The recording crackled.
A car door slammed in the background.
Then another voice spoke.
A woman's voice.
Denise.
“You shouldn't have come here, William.””
Nia went rigid.
Her father's name.
She hadn't heard a stranger say it in years.
William Williams.
The man who had taught her to ride a bicycle. The man who had worked two jobs to help pay her college tuition. The man who had always told her that people revealed their character when they believed nobody was watching.
His voice sounded strained.
“You told me the money would go to the children.””
“It will.””
“Then why are you moving it into your company?””
“Because you don't understand how complicated this has become.””
“I understand that you forged my signature.””
A sudden noise interrupted them.
Something struck metal.
Then Denise spoke again, much closer to the microphone.
“You should have stayed out of this.””
The recording ended.
Nia sat frozen.
The silence inside the car felt heavier than the sound that had preceded it.
“Play it again,” she whispered.
Tasha didn't move.
“Play it again!””
Tasha tapped the screen.
The voices repeated.
This time, Nia listened to every breath, every pause, every background noise.
At the end, she heard something she had missed.
A man's voice, faint and distant.
“Is it done?””
The audio cut off.
Nia looked at Tasha.
“Who was that?””
“I don't know.””
“Was that Darius?””
“I don't know, Nia!””
Tasha's voice broke.
“I was scared. I thought if I kept quiet, everything would stop. Mom said the recording would ruin our family. She said Dad had been doing illegal things and that Denise was protecting us.””
“Protecting us from what?””
“Prison. Debt. Everything.””
Nia stared at her sister.
“And you believed her?””
“I was seventeen!””
“And I was twenty-four! I was his daughter, too!””
Tasha flinched.
Nia immediately regretted the words, but she couldn't take them back.
For six years, she had mourned her father without knowing that the people closest to her had been hiding evidence that his death might not have been an accident.
She turned toward the window and pressed her forehead against the cool glass.
“I don't know who you are anymore.””
Tasha began to cry.
“I'm still your sister.””
Nia closed her eyes.
“Then prove it.””
Tasha wiped her face and handed over the phone.
“Take it. Make copies. Send it to the lawyer. Do whatever you need to do.””
Nia looked at the screen.
“Why are you giving it to me now?””
“Because Denise just told me to bring you to her before you found it. And I realized she wasn't afraid of the police.””
Tasha swallowed.
“She was afraid of what Dad recorded.””
Nia opened her email and forwarded the audio files to Jonathan Reed. Then she photographed the text messages between Denise and Tasha.
When she finished, she looked at her sister.
“We're going to the police.””
Tasha nodded.
“Okay.””
“And you're going to tell them everything you remember.””
“I will.””
“No more secrets.””
Tasha looked at her with red, exhausted eyes.
“No more secrets.””
Nia started to believe her.
Then the second phone rang.
The caller ID showed *MOM*.
Nia answered and put the call on speaker.
“Where are you?”” her mother demanded.
“Leaving town.””
“Don't do anything stupid.””
Nia's jaw tightened.
“That's interesting advice from someone who just told me she knows who killed my father.””
Her mother fell silent.
“Mom,” Nia said, “I heard the recording.””
A sharp inhale came through the speaker.
“Which recording?””
“The one Dad made before he died. The one where Denise threatens him.””
“Oh, God.””
“Tell me what happened.””
Her mother began crying.
“Your father was trying to protect you.””
“From Denise?””
“From all of them.””
Nia gripped the phone.
“Who killed him?””
Her mother whispered, “I don't know.””
“You just told me you did!””
“I said I know who was involved. I never said I knew who caused the accident.””
“Then tell me who was involved!””
Her mother sobbed harder.
“I can't.””
“Why?””
“Because if I tell you, they'll come after you.””
Nia looked at Tasha.
“They already have.””
Her mother was quiet for several seconds.
Then she said, “Come to the house. Alone. I have something your father left behind.””
“Why should I trust you?””
“Because I am your mother.””
Nia let out a bitter laugh.
“You keep using that word as if it means I owe you blind faith.””
“I deserve that.””
“Yes, you do.””
Her mother took a shaky breath.
“Your father left a key. He told me to give it to you if anything happened to him. I kept it because I thought I could protect you by keeping you away from the truth.””
“What does the key open?””
“I don't know.””
Nia almost hung up.
Then her mother added, “But I know what he said before he left that night.””
Nia's grip tightened.
“What?””
“He told me if he didn't come home, I should find Evelyn Carter.””
The call ended.
Nia stared at the phone.
Her mother hadn't disconnected accidentally.
Someone had taken the phone from her.
A second later, a new message arrived.
It came from an unknown number.
Stop looking for Evelyn. She is not the woman you think she is.
Nia read it twice.
Then a photograph appeared.
It showed a young woman standing outside a hospital, holding a newborn baby.
The woman looked almost exactly like Denise.
On the back of the photograph, someone had written a name.
*Evelyn Carter.*
And beside her, holding the baby's blanket, stood Nia's father.
Nia's knees weakened.
If Evelyn was Darius's biological mother, why had her father been standing beside her at the hospital?
And why did the photograph look as though it had been taken before Darius was born?
Tasha leaned closer.
“Nia?””
Nia turned the photograph over again.
There was a date printed in the bottom corner.
It was twenty-nine years old.
Darius was thirty-one.
The photograph had been taken two years before his birth.
Nia looked at her sister.
“Dad knew Evelyn before Darius was born.””
Tasha's face went pale.
“Maybe they were friends.””
Nia shook her head.
“Then why was Denise threatening him six years ago?””
Neither spoke.
Nia opened the audio files again and listened to the final seconds of the recording.
The faint male voice repeated.
“Is it done?””
This time, she recognized the speaker.
She had heard that voice thousands of times at family dinners, birthday parties, and holiday gatherings.
It belonged to Malik.
Darius's younger brother.
But the voice in the recording sounded older than the Malik she knew.
And when Nia checked the date on the audio file, she discovered something impossible.
The recording had been created six years ago.
Three days after her father's funeral.
Someone had edited the file.
Someone had added Malik's voice after her father was already dead.
Which meant the recording was not simply evidence of what happened that night.
It was evidence that someone had been trying to change the story ever since.
Nia looked at Tasha.
“We need to find Evelyn.””
Her sister nodded slowly.
Then her phone rang.
She glanced at the screen and went completely still.
Nia saw the caller's name.
*Malik Carter.*
Tasha answered before Nia could stop her.
“Hello?””
A man's voice came through, low and urgent.
“Tell Nia to stop asking questions.””
Tasha put the phone on speaker.
“Malik, what did you do?”” Nia demanded.
A pause.
Then he answered.
“I didn't kill your father.””
Nia felt the blood drain from her face.
She hadn't asked him whether he had.
May you like
Malik continued.
“But I know who did.””
