CHAPTER 13: KATHERINE'S LAST WORDS

Damien's hand shook as he opened the laptop.

Emma sat next to him but not touching. She could feel the energy coming off him—something coiled and dangerous.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" she asked.

He didn't answer. Just clicked play.

The static filled the study first. Then Katherine's voice came through, sharp and angry.

"I know what you did. I know about the money. I know about the endorsements. And I'm going to tell him."

Damien's entire body went rigid.

A man's voice responded. Calm. Controlled.

"You'll do no such thing."

Damien made a sound. Not quite a word. Something between a breath and a cry.

"That's him," he whispered. "Jesus. That's Richard."

Emma wanted to reach for him but something told her not to.

Katherine's voice came again, more panicked now.

"He deserves to know that his inheritance is built on"

"On what? On survival? On protecting this family?"

Damien stood abruptly and walked to the window. His fists were clenched so hard his knuckles were white.

"He's trying to justify it," Emma said. "He's trying to make it sound like"

"Don't," Damien said. His voice was sharp. "Don't explain it. Don't try to make sense of it."

Emma stopped talking.

On the recording, there was movement. Struggling sounds. A younger voice Claire saying something, her words too garbled to understand clearly.

"Get away from here, Claire," Richard said. His voice was different now. Cold in a way that made Emma's skin crawl. "This doesn't concern you."

"Stop it," Emma whispered. "Just stop."

But they couldn't stop. They had to listen.

Katherine was fighting. They could hear it in every sound. The desperation. The realization that something terrible was about to happen.

"No! Please don't!"

Damien turned away from the window. His face was ashen.

"Turn it off," he said.

"Damien"

"Turn it off!"

Emma stopped the recording.

They stood in silence for a moment. Then Damien walked out of the room.

Emma heard him in the bathroom. The sound of him throwing up. Then running water. Then nothing.

She sat alone with the laptop, staring at the paused audio file. The waveform of Katherine's last moments frozen on the screen.

When Damien came back, he looked worse. His shirt was partially unbuttoned. His hair was wet like he'd splashed his face with water.

"Play it again," he said.

"You don't have to"

"Play it."

Emma hit play.

This time, Damien stayed in the room. But he wasn't watching. He was pacing. Back and forth. Back and forth. His jaw working like he was trying to say something and couldn't find the words.

When the part came where Richard spoke. "I'm sorry, Katherine. I truly am."Damien stopped pacing.

"He apologized," he said. His voice was hollow. "Did you hear that? He apologized before he killed her."

"Yes," Emma said quietly.

"That makes it worse," Damien said. "That makes it so much worse. Because it means he knew. He knew what he was doing. He wasn't acting in passion or rage. He was making a choice."

The sound of the push came through. Katherine screaming. Then the sickening thud of impact.

Damien made that sound again. The one that wasn't quite human.

Emma couldn't take it anymore. She closed the laptop.

"We need to stop," she said.

"No," Damien said. He opened it again immediately. "We need to listen to all of it. We need to hear every second."

"Damien, you're falling apart"

"Of course I'm falling apart!" he shouted. "My godfather murdered my mother! The man I trusted. The man who raised me after my father died. The man I went to business school for. The man I built my entire life trying to impress."

His voice broke on the last word.

"He killed her and he got away with it and he's been walking around free for twenty years," Damien continued. "While I've been having nightmares. While I've been unable to trust anyone. While I've been broken."

Emma stood. "Then we go to the police. We take this recording"

"And say what?" Damien turned on her. "That I found audio on a necklace my mother was wearing when she died? That a man with no criminal record confessed to murder on a recording that's been missing for twenty years? Richard will say the recording is fake. He'll say I doctored it. He'll use his lawyers and his connections and he'll walk."

"So what do you want to do?" Emma asked.

Damien didn't answer. He just stared at the closed laptop like it held all the answers.

"We need to talk to him," he said finally. "We need to confront him. We need to hear what he says when he knows we know."

"That's insane," Emma said. "He's already killed one person. He's not going to confess because you ask nicely."

"I'm not going to ask nicely," Damien said. His voice was ice now. "I'm going to tell him I have the recording. I'm going to watch his face when he understands that twenty years of hiding didn't matter. That his secret is out."

"And then what?" Emma asked. "Then what happens?"

Damien didn't answer because he didn't know. Because the only thing he could think about was Katherine's voice on that recording. The apology. The push. The silence that followed.

Emma moved toward him but he held up his hand.

"Don't," he said. "Don't try to comfort me. Don't try to make this better. Just... don't."

He left the study and went upstairs. Emma heard the bedroom door close.

She sat alone in the darkness with the laptop in front of her and Katherine's last words still playing in her head. The words that came just before she died. The words that no one was supposed to hear.

Emma opened the laptop again and pressed play one more time.

She needed to understand something. She needed to hear the moment where Richard made the choice.

The moment where he became a murderer.