The Last Recording
Chapter 04 - The Last Recording
Daniel agreed to meet Celeste at the old boathouse below the cliffs. The police warned him not to go, but Eleanor’s heart medicine had been removed from the mansion, and she could not safely miss another dose. Mia discovered that the prescription number had been changed in the pharmacy system, making an emergency refill impossible without investigation.
So Daniel went wearing a concealed microphone while officers waited beyond the tree line. He was ordered to keep Voss talking and never reach for the medicine himself. But every minute mattered, and Daniel knew a careful police plan meant little if Eleanor’s heart stopped before the arrest.
Celeste stood inside the boathouse with a metal case at her feet. Roland Voss was beside her, holding the original forged will and the medication. He smiled as though the outcome had already been decided.
“Sign control of Mercer Holdings to your wife,” Voss said, “and your mother receives what she needs.”
Daniel placed the papers on a workbench but did not pick up the pen. He asked Celeste whether any part of their marriage had been real. For one brief second, pain crossed her face. Then Voss answered for her.
“She was raised to finish what your family started.”
Years earlier, Daniel’s father had exposed Voss’s investment fraud, sending him to prison and destroying his fortune. Voss had spent fifteen years teaching Celeste that revenge was justice. She had entered Daniel’s life to dismantle the Mercers from the inside.
But Celeste had made one mistake. She believed Eleanor was helpless.
Back at the mansion, Eleanor directed Mia and Nora to the antique clock in the library. Hidden behind its face was a memory card from a second camera no one knew existed. Eleanor had installed it after the first time Celeste threatened her. The final recording captured Voss admitting the forgery, the drugging, and the plan to frame Daniel.
Mia transmitted the file directly to the police and the district attorney.
At the boathouse, Voss received a warning on his phone and panicked. He seized the medication case and tried to run. Celeste blocked the door. “You said no one would get hurt,” she told him.
Voss shoved her aside, but Daniel caught the case. Officers rushed in moments later. Voss was arrested with the forged documents in his coat. Celeste did not resist. She simply looked at Daniel and said, “I became the monster he needed me to be.”
Daniel opened the case.
May you like
It was empty.
The real medicine was still missing—and Eleanor had less than one hour.
