Chapter 4
I still had Grace's goodbye recording.
Four years.
New phones.
New systems.
I kept it.
I hated it.
But I kept it.
Grace's voice filled my office.
“Ryan…”
A pause.
“I can't live like this anymore.”
Then:
“I took Ava.”
My hands tightened.
“I need you not to look for us.”
Mara stood across the room.
Marco beside her.
Emily near the door.
Ava asleep upstairs with Lily.
Grace continued.
“You'll be better without me.”
The recording ended.
For four years, those seventeen seconds had been the cruelest thing anyone ever said to me.
Now I listened differently.
I played it again.
Emily whispered:
“Boss…”
“What?”
“I heard this before you did.”
Silence.
Mara's face changed.
I turned.
“When?”
Emily looked frightened.
But she continued.
“The afternoon before you received it.”
My stomach tightened.
“Where?”
“In the west utility room.”
Marco stopped breathing.
Emily pointed.
“His phone.”
Silence.
I looked at Marco.
He laughed.
“That's ridiculous.”
Emily shook her head.
“You played the same recording.”
“No.”
“You were checking the sound.”
Marco's face hardened.
“I was sent the message too.”
“Before Ryan?”
Silence.
I looked at Mara.
“You brought it to me that evening.”
She crossed her arms.
“Yes.”
“Where did you get it?”
“Grace.”
“No.”
Her jaw tightened.
I replayed it.
Then noticed something.
Grace called me Ryan.
Always.
Except when she was terrified.
Then she called me Carter.
The way she did during arguments.
During danger.
During the night Ava was born.
I increased the volume slightly.
At the very end—
almost beneath static—
a whisper.
“Carter…”
Then something hit.
Like a hand covering the recorder.
My blood went cold.
This was not a goodbye.
It was a forced performance.
I looked at Mara.
“You made her record this.”
“No.”
“Marco had it before I did.”
“Coincidence.”
“Wrong.”
She smiled.
“You need it to be wrong.”
I stepped closer.
“What?”
“You need Grace to have loved you.”
There.
Poison.
She continued.
“Otherwise you spent four years mourning a woman who simply left.”
My jaw tightened.
Mara smiled.
“And now a hungry little girl appears and suddenly you get to rewrite your life.”
I stared.
“You hate that she's alive.”
Silence.
There.
Her face changed.
I continued.
“Not because Ava threatens you.”
Nothing.
“Because she proves Grace didn't abandon me.”
Mara looked away.
Good.
Then Emily spoke.
“There was one more thing.”
I turned.
“Miss Ruth.”
My chest tightened.
“What?”
Emily swallowed.
“I followed Marco's car the night Ava arrived.”
Marco stared.
“You what?”
Emily ignored him.
“It went to the old caretaker cottage beyond the west gardens.”
Mara's face went white.
I looked at my bodyguards.
“Go.”
Marco stepped forward.
“No.”
I stared.
He stopped.
“Why?”
He said nothing.
Ten minutes later, my phone rang.
One sentence.
“Boss, there's a woman inside.”
Alive.
May you like
And before the call ended, I heard her screaming one name.
“Ryan Carter.”
