Chapter 18 - The Video Confession
Dana Wilkes took the black flash drive and plugged it into a secure bank laptop resting on the table. She clicked on the single video file stored inside.
The small room instantly filled with my mother’s voice.
On the screen, my mother sat in her beloved rose garden. She wore the exact same blue dress from the funeral photograph, and the sunlight caught her hair in the same beautiful way. But her face was hollowed out by the cancer. Her hands trembled violently in her lap. Her eyes, however, were crystal clear and burning with purpose.
“If you are watching this video,” my mother said to the camera, “it means Richard has either tried to silence me, attempted to legally discredit Emily, or tried to turn Vanessa against her one last, final time.”
Vanessa covered her mouth with both hands, a muffled sob escaping her lips. Richard stared at the laptop screen as if he could somehow intimidate a dead woman into stopping.
“Emily, my sweet girl, I am so deeply sorry,” Mom continued, her voice breaking. “I let him make me so afraid. I let him convince me that protecting the peace of our house was the exact same thing as protecting you. It wasn’t.”
My chest tightened so hard I genuinely felt like I couldn’t pull oxygen into my lungs.
“I need you both to know the truth,” Mom said, looking straight into the lens. “Not the clean, sanitized version Richard sells. The whole, ugly version.”
She looked down at her shaking hands.
“Vanessa came into my life when she was just six months old. Richard told me her biological mother had died in a tragic accident. He said she had absolutely no one in the world. I believed him. I loved her immediately. I raised her as my own because, in every way that mattered to my heart, she was my daughter.”
Vanessa was openly weeping now, her makeup running down her face.
“But years later, I learned a terrible secret. Her mother had not died. She had been paid and threatened to disappear.”
Caldwell, Richard’s lawyer, held up a hand. “Stop the video immediately. This is hearsay.”
“No,” I commanded.
Mr. Pierce looked at the sheriff’s deputy. The deputy crossed his arms and took a deliberate step closer to the door, blocking anyone from leaving.
Mom’s voice continued relentlessly.
“Her name was Elena Marquez. She worked as an assistant for Richard’s very first real estate firm. When she became pregnant, Richard’s father threatened to ruin her immigration status, get her fired, and destroy her family. Immediately after Vanessa was born, Richard took the baby away from her and told Elena she would never see her daughter again.”
Vanessa let out a horrific, guttural sound, like something vital had physically torn inside her chest. She turned slowly to look at Richard.
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“Is that true?” she choked out.
Richard stared straight ahead, his jaw locked. He said absolutely nothing.
