Chapter 17 - The OfferNadine changed strategy three weeks before trial.
She requested a meeting with prosecutors.
Her lawyer offered full disclosure of the hidden money in exchange for a plea agreement.
This time, she did not ask for Wesley’s charges to disappear.
She asked for a lower sentencing recommendation.
The prosecutor considered it.
Victims were invited to submit statements.
Beatrice met Ruiz at the district attorney’s office.
Daniel came too.
Laura chose not to attend.
Wesley was not asked.
The prosecutor explained the realities.
Trials carried uncertainty.
Financial records were complicated.
Daniel’s misconduct could confuse jurors.
A guilty plea on multiple felony counts would guarantee accountability.
Beatrice understood.
“What would happen to the child confinement charge?”
“Nadine would plead guilty.”
“And assaulting me?”
“Yes.”
“And fraud?”
“Multiple counts.”
“Prison?”
“Very likely.”
“How much?”
The prosecutor refused to promise an exact sentence before judicial review.
That was appropriate.
Daniel sat quietly.
The prosecutor turned toward him.
“Mr. Reed, your own case is separate.”
“I know.”
“You would still be required to testify truthfully if called.”
“I will.”
Afterward, Daniel and Beatrice walked toward the parking garage.
“Would you accept the deal?” he asked.
“It isn’t my decision.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
Beatrice stopped.
“Yes.”
Daniel looked surprised.
“You don’t want a trial?”
“I want Wesley to stop being a piece of evidence in adult battles.”
Daniel nodded.
“And if she admits what she did, that matters.”
“Even if she gets less time?”
“Yes.”
Beatrice looked at her son.
“Consequences are not revenge.”
Daniel absorbed the words.
Two days later Nadine withdrew the offer.
No explanation.
Ruiz suspected pride.
Beatrice suspected something else.
Nadine still believed she had leverage.
They discovered it shortly afterward.
Daniel received a message through his attorney.
Nadine possessed an audio recording from the night he first confessed the $740,000 transfer to her.
She claimed the recording proved Daniel ordered her to create false documents.
Daniel looked terrified.
“Did you?”
“No.”
“Then why are you afraid?”
“Because I don’t remember every word.”
That was honest.
Months earlier, he had been drinking heavily.
Panicked.
He remembered asking Nadine to hide notices.
He remembered saying he would do “anything” to keep Beatrice from discovering the transfer.
He did not remember instructing her to forge anything.
But the word anything could sound terrible.
Martin arranged for prosecutors to obtain the recording during discovery.
It lasted fourteen minutes.
The family listened in a conference room.
Daniel’s voice was slurred.
“I need time.”
Nadine said, “Then let me handle it.”
“Just keep the letters away from Mom.”
“What if the bank calls?”
“Say she’s traveling.”
“And the signatures?”
Long pause.
Daniel said, “I’m not signing anything else.”
Nadine pressed him.
“I can make this disappear.”
“No.”
“You already crossed the line.”
“I said no.”
Another pause.
Then Daniel said the sentence he feared.
“I would do anything to fix this.”
Nadine answered, “Good.”
But Daniel immediately added:
“Anything legal from here forward.”
Beatrice looked at him.
Daniel exhaled.
The recording did not clear him.
It confirmed his concealment.
But it also showed Nadine attempting to expand the scheme and Daniel refusing.
Her leverage vanished.
Daniel laughed once, almost disbelieving.
“I’ve spent months afraid of that recording.”
“Because you didn’t know what you said,” Beatrice replied.
“No.”
“Because you didn’t know who you were when you said it.”
Daniel looked at her.
That was closer.
He had been terrified that the worst interpretation of him might be true.
Now the recording gave him something unexpected.
Not innocence.
A boundary.
Late and inadequate.
But real.
That evening Nadine accepted the plea negotiation again.
This time prosecutors required something additional.
She had to explain the planned trip with Wesley.
Where had she intended to take him?
Why?
And what would she have done if he refused to reveal the location of the USB drive?
Her written answer arrived the following morning.
Beatrice read only the first paragraph before setting it down.
May you like
Because Nadine admitted the cabin had been the destination.
And she expected to keep Wesley there overnight.
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