Chapter 12 - The Perfect Frame
The next three days were a nightmare.
Reporters parked outside my house.
Employees stopped returning my calls.
People who had known me for fifteen years suddenly spoke through lawyers.
Grant gave another interview.
He claimed Laura had discovered my financial crimes and become unstable before her accident.
The story was elegant.
Simple.
And completely false.
Peter produced documents bearing my signature.
My attorney told me the signatures were convincing enough to create serious problems.
I thought about Laura’s recording.
Someone else approved transfers using Daniel’s credentials.
They had planned this long before she died.
The children remained with Megan.
I spoke to them every night.
Owen tried to sound brave.
Ellie did not.
“When can we come home?”
“Soon.”
“Is Natalie coming home?”
I hesitated.
“No.”
“Good.”
That one word broke something inside me.
The woman I had chosen to help raise my children had made them afraid to live in their own house.
Natalie had vanished again after meeting with police.
Her attorney claimed she feared for her safety.
Ruiz believed Peter had reached her.
Then Peter shocked everyone.
He voluntarily came to the police station.
He denied kidnapping Laura.
He denied financial fraud.
He denied sending the threat.
And he produced a sworn statement from Natalie.
In it, Natalie claimed she had lied during our diner meeting because I had pressured her.
She said I was obsessed with proving Laura had been murdered.
I stared at the document.
“She changed her story.”
Ruiz nodded.
“Someone got to her.”
“Or she was working for them the whole time.”
I hated that I still did not know which version was true.
That night, Megan called.
“Owen remembered something.”
I drove to the safe location.
Owen had one of Laura’s old stuffed bluebirds in his lap.
“I forgot Mom gave this to me before she died.”
He turned the toy over.
There was a zipper beneath one wing.
Inside was a tiny paper strip.
One handwritten line.
When they erase the truth, follow the bluebird home.
Below it was an email address I had never seen.
May you like
And a password hint.
Our first dance.
