Chapter 4 - THE FALSE MEMORIES
Chloe opened a hidden folder on her phone.
There were twelve edited videos.
One showed me entering the kitchen and asking where Daniel was.
The clip cut away before I explained that he had promised to call.
Another showed me searching for my keys.
The original recording lasted less than a minute.
The edited version repeated the moment three times.
A caption read.
Eleanor is becoming forgetful again.
Another video showed me speaking to Robert’s photograph.
Vanessa had added sad music and sent it privately to Daniel.
I remembered his call afterward.
He asked whether I was lonely.
Whether I had considered speaking to a doctor.
I thought he was being caring.
He had been responding to a campaign.
Chloe wiped her face.
“Vanessa said it was only to convince him the house should be managed by someone else.”
Daniel looked at her.
“And you believed that?”
“She paid me.”
“How much?”
Chloe did not answer.
Vanessa stepped forward.
“This has gone far enough.”
Daniel turned.
“You cut my mother’s hair while recording her humiliation.”
“You lied about being pregnant.”
“You forged her signature.”
“You worked with Marcus to steal her voting rights.”
Vanessa raised her chin.
“You are acting like a child.”
“I was protecting our future.”
“By stealing my mother’s house?”
“By moving an old woman out of the way.”
The room became silent.
Vanessa realized too late that she had said the truth aloud.
Daniel looked at me.
For months, I had asked him to notice what was happening.
He had asked me to be patient.
He had asked me to forgive small misunderstandings.
He had asked me not to embarrass Vanessa before the wedding.
Now he saw what his patience had protected.
He took out his phone.
“I am calling the police.”
Vanessa laughed.
“For what?”
“A haircut?”
“Theft.”
“Forgery.”
“Fraud.”
“And whatever Marcus helped you do inside my company.”
Her confidence returned slightly.
“Marcus controls the financial records.”
“Then he will be investigated too.”
“He controls the board.”
Daniel stopped.
Vanessa smiled.
“You really have no idea what has been happening while you traveled.”
Daniel called Marcus.
The call went directly to voicemail.
He opened his company email.
His password failed.
He tried the executive portal.
Access denied.
Then his phone received a notification.
EMERGENCY BOARD MEETING COMPLETED.
The next message arrived from the company’s attorney.
Daniel Mercer had been suspended as chief executive pending an investigation into misuse of company funds.
Marcus Vale had been appointed interim chief executive.
Vanessa picked up her handbag.
“You should have listened when I told you not to choose your mother over me.”
Daniel looked at her.
“You planned this before today.”
“I planned for every possibility.”
She glanced toward the security monitor.
“Except the cameras.”
Police sirens sounded beyond the garden.
Vanessa’s smile faded.
May you like
Then every screen in the house went black.
Someone had remotely deleted the recording archive.
