Chapter 8
Richard stared at his son.
“What did you say?”
Mark looked toward the floor.
“I was drunk.”
“That wasn't my question.”
Mark’s breathing became shallow.
“She made me talk about what happened.”
“Why?”
“So I could never leave her.”
The betrayal had changed shape again.
Claudia had not merely been Mark’s mistress.
She had built insurance against him.
Richard asked:
“Where is the recording?”
“I don't know.”
“You just said she uses it against you.”
“She plays pieces.”
“Pieces?”
Mark nodded.
“Never the whole thing.”
Richard’s eyes hardened.
Mark continued.
“Every time I tried to end the relationship, she reminded me what the family would hear.”
“And you married her.”
Mark looked ashamed.
“Yes.”
“And you let her punish Noah.”
“I didn't know how bad it was.”
Richard stepped closer.
Mark stopped breathing.
Richard did not touch him.
That restraint frightened Mark more.
“You watched your barefoot son get shoved into snow.”
Mark’s voice cracked.
“I know.”
“No.”
Richard’s gaze remained fixed on him.
“You're beginning to know.”
Mark lowered his head.
Richard’s attorneys requested preservation of Claudia’s devices through the appropriate process surrounding the developing investigation.
Claudia responded by hiring her own lawyer.
Then she made a move nobody expected.
She voluntarily offered one audio clip.
Thirty-two seconds.
Richard listened in his library.
Mark’s voice, frantic:
“She wouldn't move.”
Claudia:
“You hit her.”
Mark:
“I didn't mean to.”
Claudia:
“She’s dead because you couldn't let her walk away.”
The recording ended.
Richard did not move.
His attorney looked toward him.
Mark sat across the room, completely pale.
“That isn't the whole recording.”
Richard’s eyes slowly lifted.
“What comes after?”
Mark’s lips trembled.
He looked toward the speaker.
May you like
Then whispered:
“The part Claudia has spent fourteen months making sure nobody hears.”
