Chapter 6 - The Recording
Detective Ortiz wanted Noah placed in protective custody.
Noah refused until his wife and daughter were safe.
My father arranged for them to be removed from their apartment through the underground garage.
By seven thirty, they were inside a secured Sterling property in Westchester.
Only then did Noah agree to help.
He opened the external drive.
The files contained invoices, banking transfers, private messages, and altered board reports.
Matthew had diverted more than thirty-four million dollars over three years.
Lauren had approved nearly half the transfers.
There were also payments to judges, regulators, journalists, and a private security company called Blackline Strategic.
My father recognized the name.
“They don’t provide ordinary security.”
“What do they do?”
I asked.
“They make problems disappear.”
Ortiz looked up from the screen.
“People?”
“Evidence.”
My father answered.
“Witnesses.”
A technician entered carrying Lauren’s damaged phone.
The cloud backup had been recovered.
Ortiz asked whether I wanted to hear the recording.
My father said no before I could answer.
I looked at him.
“I need to know.”
“You already know enough.”
“No.”
“I know what Matthew did.”
“I need to know what she did.”
The technician connected the phone to a speaker.
At first, there was only background noise.
Then Lauren’s voice filled the room.
“She still thinks she matters.”
Matthew laughed.
“Not after tonight.”
“You always let her make you feel guilty.”
“I don’t feel guilty.”
“Then prove it.”
A pause followed.
The sound of the penthouse door opening came through the recording.
My own voice asked Matthew where he had been.
The argument began.
Lauren stayed connected.
She listened as he accused me of spying.
She laughed when he called me useless.
Then came the first strike.
Even though I knew it was coming, my entire body recoiled.
The crack sounded sharper through the hospital speaker.
Lauren stopped laughing.
“Matthew?”
He ignored her.
The second strike landed.
Then the third.
“Matthew, that’s enough.”
He continued.
By the sixth, Lauren was pleading with him to stop.
By the tenth, she was crying.
By the fifteenth, she whispered that she was going to hang up.
Matthew shouted that if she disconnected, she would lose everything.
She stayed.
At twenty, the room fell silent.
Then Matthew moved close to the phone.
“You wanted proof.”
He said.
“Now you know who owns this family.”
The recording ended when he left the penthouse.
No one spoke for several seconds.
Lauren had encouraged him.
Then she had become afraid of the monster she helped unleash.
Ortiz turned off the speaker.
“There’s another file.”
The technician said.
“It was recorded three hours before the assault.”
Lauren and Matthew were arguing inside his car.
Lauren accused him of changing their escape plan.
Matthew replied that there would only be two tickets.
“What about Owen?”
Lauren demanded.
Matthew’s answer was cold.
May you like
“The boy was useful when I needed you loyal.”
“He isn’t coming with us.”
