Chapter 3 - The Voice That Wasn't Andrew
Andrew reached for the envelope.
Victoria stopped him.
“It says my name.”
“Which is exactly why you shouldn’t touch it.”
She almost laughed from disbelief.
“Five minutes ago, you were chasing us through the hallway.”
“And five minutes ago, I thought Lily had stolen a classified phone.”
Lily flinched at the word “stolen.”
Andrew immediately regretted it.
“I’m sorry. That came out wrong.”
Victoria set Lily gently on the cedar chest but kept one arm around her.
“Tell me exactly what happened.”
Andrew glanced toward the hallway before answering.
“At 8:40, I went to my study to call the board chairman. My backup phone was gone.”
“Who knew where it was?”
“You. My assistant. Security.”
“And staff?”
“Not the lock code.”
Victoria looked at the glowing speaker.
“Apparently somebody knew more than you thought.”
Andrew crouched without touching anything.
A thin audio cable disappeared behind the shelf.
He traced it with his eyes.
The cable connected to a tiny recorder.
Someone had built a crude playback station inside the linen room.
Andrew’s face hardened.
“This wasn’t put together by Lily.”
Victoria opened the envelope.
Inside was a single photograph.
Her knees nearly weakened.
It showed Andrew standing outside the mansion three afternoons earlier beside a dark SUV.
A woman was facing him.
Her back was toward the camera.
Andrew’s hand rested on her shoulder.
On the reverse, someone had written:
ASK HIM WHERE HE PLANNED TO SEND LILY.
Victoria looked up.
“Who is she?”
Andrew stared at the picture.
“I can explain that.”
The sentence was so familiar, so universally disastrous, that Victoria almost tore the photograph in half.
“Then explain.”
Before Andrew could answer, Lily pointed at the speaker.
“That’s where Daddy talked.”
Victoria slowly turned.
“What?”
“The lady pushed the button.”
Andrew’s face drained.
“What did you hear?”
Lily looked terrified.
Victoria knelt in front of her.
“Nothing you say will get you in trouble.”
The child sniffed.
“She said Daddy was sending me away because I’m bad.”
Andrew closed his eyes.
Victoria felt fury rise again.
“What exactly did the voice say?”
Lily tried to remember.
“That I had to pack. That Daddy was taking me somewhere far away.”
Andrew looked at the recorder.
“That wasn’t me.”
“It sounded like you,” Lily insisted.
Victoria stared at the equipment.
Then she understood.
“You think somebody played a recording?”
“Or generated one.”
Victoria hated how plausible that sounded.
Andrew’s company employed engineers who worked with advanced simulation systems. Voice cloning wasn’t science fiction anymore. A few minutes of clean audio could create something frighteningly convincing.
But that didn’t explain the photograph.
Victoria held it up.
“Who is the woman?”
Andrew hesitated.
That hesitation mattered.
“Her name is Dr. Elena Morris.”
“And?”
“She’s a child psychologist.”
Victoria stared at him.
“Why were you secretly meeting a child psychologist?”
“I wasn’t meeting her secretly.”
“You never told me.”
“Because she wasn’t here for Lily.”
The answer made no sense.
“Then who?”
Andrew glanced at their daughter.
“Not in front of her.”
Victoria’s patience broke.
“No more secrets.”
Andrew lowered his voice.
“Your sister called her.”
Victoria stopped.
“My sister?”
“Caroline.”
That name shifted the room.
Caroline Mercer was Victoria’s older half sister and the person Lily trusted almost as much as her parents.
She was also downstairs.
Caroline had organized half the gala.
Victoria shook her head.
“No.”
“Three weeks ago, Caroline told me she thought Lily was showing signs of anxiety.”
“Why would she tell you and not me?”
“She said you’d been overwhelmed since your mother died.”
Victoria’s grief was still fresh enough that the words hurt.
Her mother, Evelyn, had died six months earlier after a sudden stroke.
Caroline had practically moved into the Blake mansion afterward, helping with Lily, household schedules, and Victoria’s charity foundation.
Andrew continued.
“I didn’t agree to have Lily evaluated. I met Dr. Morris because I wanted to know why Caroline was pushing so hard.”
Victoria looked at the photograph again.
Someone had cropped it carefully.
It made Andrew’s reassuring hand on a doctor’s shoulder look intimate.
It made a consultation look secretive.
Maybe.
Or maybe Andrew was building another explanation.
Victoria couldn’t tell anymore.
Then Andrew’s phone on the floor lit up.
A message appeared on the lock screen.
UNKNOWN NUMBER.
Victoria read it before Andrew could move.
IF YOU WANT YOUR DAUGHTER SAFE, DO NOT TRUST YOUR HUSBAND.
A second message arrived.
Then a photograph.
It had been taken less than a minute earlier.
Victoria was standing inside the linen room holding Lily.
May you like
Andrew was beside her.
Somebody was photographing them right now.
