Chapter 8 - FRANK’S SECRET
Michael refused to believe it.
“My father would never do that.”
Lauren didn’t argue.
“I’m telling you what Diane told me.”
Rachel opened her notebook.
“Did you ever speak directly with Frank?”
“No.”
“Did he sign anything you saw?”
Lauren nodded.
“The agreement.”
Rachel and I exchanged a glance.
The same agreement from the dining table.
The one witnessed by Thomas Reed.
Michael rubbed both hands over his face.
“So either Dad helped her…”
“Or his signature was forged then too,” Rachel said.
Lauren stared at her.
“Forged?”
Rachel explained the recent authorization bearing Frank’s signature.
Lauren went pale.
“I kept something.”
She pulled a tiny flash drive from her purse.
Michael frowned.
“What is that?”
“A recording.”
My pulse quickened.
“Of Diane?”
Lauren nodded.
“Not the whole conversation.”
She looked embarrassed.
“I was scared and turned my phone recorder on before I went into her office.”
Michael stared at the drive.
“For fourteen years?”
“I kept it because it was the only proof I wasn’t imagining what happened.”
Rachel asked, “Have you listened to it recently?”
“No.”
“May we?”
Lauren hesitated.
Then handed it over.
We went to Rachel’s office two blocks away.
She copied the file onto an offline laptop.
Static filled the speakers.
Then Diane’s younger voice emerged.
Cold.
Controlled.
“You will sign the agreement.”
Lauren’s voice answered.
“And if I don’t?”
“You’ll lose the child.”
Michael closed his eyes.
Lauren’s recorded voice trembled.
“Michael would never take my baby.”
Then Diane said something that changed the entire case.
“Michael won’t need to.”
A chair scraped on the recording.
Lauren whispered, “What does that mean?”
Diane replied, “Frank has already signed.”
Michael opened his eyes.
Then another voice entered.
A man.
Older.
Angry.
“Diane, what the hell are you doing?”
The recording cut out.
Michael stood so quickly the laptop nearly fell.
“That was my father.”
Rachel replayed the final five seconds.
Again.
The male voice was unmistakable.
Frank Callahan.
Michael stared at the speaker.
“He didn’t know.”
Rachel nodded slowly.
“Which means Diane lied to Lauren.”
Michael looked at the ceiling.
For years, he had worshipped his mother partly because she told him his father had agreed with every decision she made.
Now that story was cracking too.
Lauren whispered, “There’s more.”
We turned.
She looked terrified.
“Frank came to see me two weeks later.”
Michael stared at her.
“My father knew about Noah?”
Lauren nodded.
May you like
“And before he died, he tried to fix everything.”
*
