Chapter 4 - The Blue TabletThe police separated everyone.
Valerie was taken into the formal dining room with one officer.
Colin remained with Sienna and Mercedes in the library.
The second officer contacted a supervisor and requested a child-services response.
Colin sat beside Sienna.
“Tell me about the tablet.”
Sienna rubbed her thumb over a loose thread on her sleeve.
“I was making a movie.”
“What kind?”
“A stop-motion one.”
Colin remembered.
Sienna used to line up her small animal figures and move them a fraction at a time.
Audrey had taught her.
“You left it recording?”
Sienna nodded.
“In the sunroom?”
“Yes.”
“When Valerie and Elliot were in my office?”
Another nod.
“Did you see the video?”
“Some.”
“What happened?”
“I heard them talking through the door.”
Colin tried to keep his face calm.
“About what?”
“Money.”
Anything more specific might frighten her.
He did not push.
“Where is the tablet now?”
Sienna’s expression collapsed.
“Valerie took it.”
Colin looked at Mercedes.
Mercedes had gone very still.
Sienna whispered, “She made me unlock it.”
A painful silence filled the room.
“And then?”
“She deleted the movie.”
Colin’s chest tightened.
“Did she delete anything else?”
“I don’t know.”
Mercedes spoke.
“Was it connected to your mother’s account?”
Sienna looked confused.
Colin understood.
Years ago, Audrey had configured automatic cloud backup for family photos.
After her death, Colin had kept the account active because he could not bear to delete anything.
The tablet might still be registered.
Colin took out his phone.
He opened the family cloud account.
It asked for authentication.
His hands suddenly felt clumsy.
Mercedes stood behind him.
Sienna watched.
A folder appeared.
Sienna’s iPad.
Colin opened it.
Recent uploads.
Drawings.
Photographs.
Short videos.
Then—
A file recorded eleven days earlier.
Forty-seven minutes long.
Colin stared.
“Is this it?”
Sienna leaned closer.
Her eyes widened.
“Yes.”
The officer was called back into the room before Colin played it.
He explained what they had discovered.
The officer advised him not to manipulate or edit the file.
Colin agreed.
They started the recording.
For the first thirty minutes, almost nothing happened.
Sienna’s little figures moved across the floor.
Then Sienna apparently left.
The tablet remained propped toward the sunroom doorway.
At thirty-three minutes, voices became audible.
Valerie.
Elliot.
The picture did not show them clearly.
But the audio did.
Elliot spoke first.
“The audit is in six weeks.”
Valerie replied, “Then finish before six weeks.”
“I can’t move another three hundred without triggering secondary approval.”
“You said you could.”
“I said I could move it if Colin wasn’t asking questions.”
“He never asks questions.”
Colin stopped breathing.
Valerie continued.
“He signs whatever you put in front of him.”
Elliot lowered his voice.
“That was before the Belmont transfer got kicked back.”
Valerie sounded irritated.
“Then spread the invoices.”
“I already did.”
“How much is left?”
“Just under one-point-two.”
Colin looked at the officer.
Neither man spoke.
On the recording, paper rustled.
Then Elliot said something that made Colin’s skin go cold.
“What about Audrey’s folder?”
Valerie answered immediately.
“I haven’t found it.”
“That amendment could ruin everything.”
“I know.”
Colin paused the video.
“What amendment?”
Mercedes looked at him.
He shook his head.
“I have no idea.”
They continued.
Elliot spoke again.
“If the trust document is what you think it is, you need it gone before anyone reviews the estate file.”
“You think I don’t understand that?”
“And the girl?”
Silence.
Then Valerie said:
“She saw me searching.”
Colin’s hand tightened around the phone.
Elliot swore quietly.
“How much does she know?”
“Nothing useful.”
“Are you sure?”
“She’s eight.”
A long pause.
Then Valerie said something softer.
More chilling because of how calmly she said it.
“I can handle Sienna.”
Colin stopped the recording.
Nobody moved.
From somewhere down the hallway came Valerie’s voice.
“Colin!”
He did not answer.
The officer asked, “Do you know what trust they’re talking about?”
Colin stared at the frozen image on the tablet.
“Yes.”
He thought of Audrey’s estate.
Her shares.
Her investments.
The lake property that had belonged to her family before their marriage.
Most of it had eventually passed into a trust for Sienna.
Colin had always believed the documents were straightforward.
He had never heard of an amendment.
Mercedes whispered, “Mr. Colin?”
Colin looked at his daughter.
She appeared terrified.
Not because of the money.
Because she thought she had caused all of this.
He knelt in front of her.
“Sienna.”
She looked at him.
“You did nothing wrong.”
“But Valerie said—”
“I don’t care what Valerie said.”
His voice broke.
“You protected the truth.”
The front door opened.
More officers had arrived.
Valerie began demanding to leave.
Colin looked toward the hallway.
For the first time, the abuse on the treadmill no longer looked like an isolated act of cruelty.
It had started after Sienna overheard Valerie and Elliot.
After she found the transfer sheet.
After Valerie discovered the tablet.
Colin looked at the officer.
“I need my lawyer.”
Then he looked at Mercedes.
“And I need someone to find every dollar those two moved.”
Behind them, the tablet recording continued playing.
Valerie’s voice came through the speaker.
May you like
One final sentence they had not yet heard.
“When Colin finds out, I need Sienna to be the one person he doesn’t believe.”
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