Chapter 18 - The Last Video Wasn’t Kiara’sSix months passed.
Then Detective Ruiz called.
“We found another recording.”
Dashiell felt immediate dread.
“Of Maisy?”
“No.”
“Elowen?”
“Yes.”
His chest tightened.
“Where?”
“Roxanne’s old cloud account.”
The account had been preserved during digital review.
Most files were ordinary.
Family photographs.
Receipts.
Documents.
One video had been deleted but recoverable.
Timestamp:
The night Elowen died.
11:58 p.m.
Two minutes before the planned pharmacy meeting.
Roxanne had apparently started recording on her phone before Elowen arrived.
Maybe intentionally.
Maybe accidentally.
Dashiell watched with Naomi.
The camera pointed toward a dashboard.
Roxanne’s voice.
Then Elowen.
“You wanted to talk. Talk.”
Roxanne:
“You think threatening me is smart?”
Elowen:
“I’m not threatening you. I’m giving you one chance to fix what you did.”
“What did I do?”
“You altered records.”
Silence.
“You used Calder’s fear to attack my daughter’s future.”
Roxanne laughed.
“Your daughter will have more money than she could ever need.”
“That isn’t the point.”
“The Holloways worship money.”
“No. You do.”
Roxanne’s voice hardened.
“You think Dashiell is going to forgive you when he learns you implanted an embryo without telling him?”
Elowen:
“I’m going to tell him.”
Silence.
“You won’t.”
“I will.”
“He’ll never trust you again.”
“Maybe.”
Dashiell’s eyes filled.
Elowen continued:
“But that’s his decision.”
Naomi looked at Dashiell.
There.
Elowen had chosen truth even if it cost her marriage.
Roxanne:
“And Calder?”
“He tells the truth too.”
“You think he’ll destroy his company position for you?”
“No.”
“For Maisy.”
Roxanne laughed.
“You’re naïve.”
Elowen:
“I was.”
Then:
“I trusted you because you were family.”
Roxanne answered:
“That was your mistake.”
Dashiell stopped the video.
He needed a moment.
Then continued.
Elowen:
“Sign the statement.”
Paper rustling.
Roxanne:
“No.”
“Then tomorrow I tell Dashiell everything.”
“You’ll destroy him.”
“No.”
“I’ll disappoint him.”
Silence.
“That is not the same thing.”
Dashiell closed his eyes.
He wished everyone had understood that sooner.
Roxanne:
“You’ll lose your marriage.”
Elowen:
“Then I lose it honestly.”
Silence.
Roxanne’s breathing changed.
“You always thought you were better than me.”
Elowen:
“No.”
“You did.”
“I thought you were scared.”
Roxanne laughed.
“Of what?”
“Being irrelevant.”
Silence.
Elowen continued:
“You attach yourself to people’s problems so they need you.”
Dashiell felt cold.
That described everything.
Roxanne entered the family after Elowen’s parents died.
Helped.
Managed.
Advised.
Then after Elowen died, she moved into Dashiell’s house.
Needed.
Always needed.
Elowen:
“If people stop needing you, you think they’ll stop loving you.”
Roxanne’s voice became quiet.
“You have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“I think I do.”
Then movement.
The car door opened.
Elowen’s final words:
“I’m going home.”
Video ended.
Dashiell cried.
Not because new evidence proved murder.
It didn’t.
Because he heard Elowen say it.
Home.
She was going home.
To him.
She had chosen the difficult conversation.
Then the worst possible coincidence happened on the road.
Gregory’s intoxication.
Roxanne’s reckless decision to involve him.
A chain of terrible choices.
But Elowen’s intent was clear.
Home.
Detective Ruiz continued:
“There’s an audio fragment after this.”
Dashiell frowned.
The file restarted nine minutes later.
Apparently Roxanne had begun another voice memo.
She was crying.
“Gregory, stop the car.”
A male voice:
“Relax.”
“You’re too close.”
“Then tell her to slow down.”
“Stop following her.”
Tires.
Roxanne:
“Pull over.”
Car door.
Then:
“You idiot. I said scare her, not—”
The recording cut.
Dashiell froze.
Naomi stared.
“Scare her?”
Ruiz nodded.
“That changes things.”
Dashiell felt cold.
“What exactly did Roxanne ask Gregory to do?”
That became the new central question.
Gregory had said Roxanne wanted him to keep Elowen from driving straight home.
The audio suggested something more.
Scare her.
Investigators re-interviewed Gregory.
This time, confronted with audio, he broke.
Roxanne had told him to follow closely.
Flash headlights.
Make Elowen pull over.
She wanted another chance to retrieve the evidence.
Gregory was drunk.
He followed too aggressively.
Elowen sped up.
Gregory lost control around the curve.
The crash.
Roxanne never told him to hit her.
Never intended the collision.
But she created the dangerous pursuit.
That changed potential criminal liability dramatically.
Dashiell sat in silence after hearing.
He had spent months teaching himself not to exaggerate evidence.
Now evidence itself had moved closer to his worst fear.
Roxanne had not planned to kill Elowen.
But her intimidation contributed to the conditions that led to her death.
And she had hidden it for three years.
Naomi looked at him.
“You okay?”
“No.”
He almost smiled.
That answer had become strangely healthy.
“What now?”
“Prosecutors decide.”
Dashiell looked toward the window.
“And me?”
Naomi waited.
May you like
“I go home to Maisy.”
For once, he knew exactly which truth mattered most.
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