Chapter 7 - THE RECORDING
The audio specialist delivered the restored recording two days later.
Santiago listened in the study with Tomas, Ruby, and Sophia.
At first there was only static.
Then their mother's voice emerged.
“If you're hearing this, I was not able to explain everything myself.”
Santiago's throat tightened.
His mother sounded tired but composed.
“Matteo has been moving money from the family trust. I found payments to Dr. Voss and to a private transport company. When I confronted him, he said I was too emotional to understand the accounts.”
A pause.
“I also found records of medication orders that were never prescribed to Sophia. I don't know what he intended, but I know he wanted her unable to tell anyone what she had seen.”
Sophia gripped Ruby's hand.
Their mother's voice continued.
“Yesterday, I saw Matteo in the kitchen with a small bottle. He said it was a supplement. I refused to let him give it to me.”
A chair scraped in the background.
Then another voice spoke.
Matteo.
“You're making this difficult.”
Their mother answered, “You are stealing from your own family.”
“You don't understand what this family requires.”
“I understand exactly what you are doing.”
The recording ended with a sharp noise.
Then silence.
Santiago sat motionless.
Tomas looked at the floor.
Ruby's eyes were wet.
Sophia had both hands pressed against her mouth.
Santiago replayed the final section.
There was a faint sound after the noise: a cup falling, footsteps, and a door closing.
Then his mother's voice, barely audible.
“Tell Santiago.”
Santiago stopped the recording.
He could no longer pretend the truth was a misunderstanding.
He called the family attorney and requested an emergency meeting. He also contacted the district attorney's office through an independent lawyer, providing copies of the recording and financial records.
Tomas warned him that Matteo would react.
“He will try to destroy anything that connects him to this.”
“Then we preserve everything.”
“Your uncle still has people inside the company.”
“Not for long.”
That evening, Sophia asked to speak with Santiago alone.
He entered her room and sat in the chair beside the bed.
She opened her sketchbook.
On the page was a drawing of their mother standing beside a piano. Beneath it, Sophia had written one word:
SORRY.
Santiago frowned.
“Why are you sorry?”
She pointed to the drawing, then to herself.
He understood.
She believed she had failed their mother by not telling him the truth sooner.
Santiago moved to the floor beside her.
“No. You were a child. You were frightened, and the adults who should have protected you did not listen.”
Sophia's eyes filled.
He took her hand.
“You don't owe me an apology.”
Her fingers moved slowly.
She signed a sentence he had never learned.
Then she repeated it.
Santiago called Ruby.
Ruby came to the doorway.
“She says she missed you.”
Santiago's face crumpled.
May you like
He leaned forward and held his sister's hand against his forehead.
“I missed you too.”
