Chapter 15 - THE LOWEST POINT
The second recording was damaged.
Experts could recover fragments.
Victoria’s voice.
Arthur’s voice.
A third man.
Words about trusts.
Insurance.
A doctor.
And one sentence clear enough to understand.
Dominic is expendable.
The prosecutor believed it supported the theory that Victoria had been willing to sacrifice her own son if the financial scheme collapsed.
But it wasn’t enough to prove exactly what she intended.
Then the case took a hit.
Dominic’s attorney challenged portions of the digital evidence.
He claimed some messages had been altered.
He claimed the surveillance plan had manipulated Dominic into behaving violently.
The argument sounded absurd to me.
But hearings meant delays.
Delays meant opportunities.
Dominic was granted bond under strict conditions while the financial investigation continued.
An electronic monitor.
No contact with me.
No contact with witnesses.
No access to the Bennett property.
I watched him leave the courthouse from across the street.
He looked directly at me.
He smiled.
My knees went weak.
That night, I couldn’t sleep.
For the first time since the arrest, I felt afraid again.
Not because I doubted what happened.
Because evidence and truth were not always the same thing.
Evidence needed rules.
Truth needed witnesses.
Witnesses could become frightened.
Rachel received an anonymous threat.
Lauren received another.
Arthur refused to leave protective housing.
Then he disappeared again.
This time he left voluntarily.
He walked out through a service entrance and vanished.
Chloe was furious.
“He knows Victoria’s habits better than anyone.”
“Then maybe he went after her.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of.”
At midnight, I sat at Erin’s kitchen table staring at my burned hand.
The doctors said I would regain most movement.
But the scars would remain.
Part of me hated them.
Part of me needed them.
They reminded me I hadn’t imagined anything.
At 12:17 a.m., the security alarm beeped.
Erin came running downstairs.
A package sat outside the front door.
No delivery driver.
No car.
Inside was the cheap towel Dominic had pressed against my burned palm.
I recognized the pattern immediately.
Beneath it was a note.
YOU PRESSED THE WRONG BUTTON.
Police searched the neighborhood.
Nothing.
Then Chloe called.
“Claire, check the towel.”
“What?”
“The corners.”
I unfolded it.
Something hard was sewn inside the hem.
A tiny memory card.
Chloe went silent.
“Do you know what’s on it?”
I suddenly remembered the night Dominic slammed me into the pantry wall.
The camera had already been installed.
But I had never activated the emergency switch.
At least, that was what I believed.
Then I remembered what Chloe had told me three weeks earlier.
May you like
The device records locally even before the live alarm is activated.
The hidden camera had been watching much longer than Dominic knew.
