The Second Betrayal
Chapter 09 - The Second Betrayal
Grace had ignored Emma’s order to stay behind.
She had also done something Emma had not expected.
Before leaving the office, she called Lila’s original number. The phone rang inside Lila’s coat.
Lila claimed she had abandoned it.
Grace did not believe her.
Now the message from Victor glowed between them.
Emma looked at Lila.
“You said he followed you.”
“He did.”
“You are still talking to him.”
Lila’s face collapsed.
“I was trying to buy time.”
“For whom?”
Before she could answer, the detective entered with two officers. They moved Lila outside and searched the surrounding property.
No black car remained.
Victor had either seen the police or had never been there.
Back at Caroline’s office, Lila surrendered both phones.
The recording was real.
So were forty-seven messages between Lila and Victor from the previous week.
Most were cold and practical.
A few were not.
I miss you.
After Friday, we leave.
She’ll never know what happened.
Emma read them once.
Then she pushed the phone away.
Grace stood beside her.
“Did she set up the meeting?”
“We don’t know yet,” Caroline said.
Lila sat across the room with an officer near the door.
“I told him I could get Emma to meet me,” she said. “I thought if he came, the police would arrest him.”
“You did not tell us that,” Emma said.
“I knew you wouldn’t trust me.”
“You were right.”
The detective asked Lila whether Victor knew about the recording.
“He suspects.”
“Where is the original file stored?”
Lila hesitated.
“On a drive in the Whitmore house.”
Emma’s house.
The house Victor still had access to because the court had not yet ruled on the temporary protective orders.
Caroline immediately called police.
They arrived fifteen minutes later.
The back door was open.
Victor was gone.
So was the drive.
But he had left something on Emma’s bed.
A printed copy of the proxy agreement.
May you like
Across the signature line, he had written one sentence in red ink.
FRIDAY, OR GRACE LOSES EVERYTHING TOO.
