Chapter 5 - The Voice From Nathan’s Final Recording
The voice on the recording said my name.
“Fay.”
My entire body froze.
I knew that voice.
I knew it before my mind was ready to accept it.
I looked at James.
He had gone completely still.
Neither of us spoke.
The storage unit suddenly felt smaller.
The boxes around us felt like walls closing in.
I stared at my phone screen.
The voicemail continued.
A few seconds of silence.
Then the voice returned.
“Fay, if you’re hearing this, then Nathan was right.”
My fingers tightened around the phone.
Because the voice belonged to someone I had trusted my entire life.
Someone who had held my hand when I was a child.
Someone who had walked me down the aisle.
Someone whose name was written on my birth certificate.
My father.
Gerald Whitmore.
I looked at James.
“No.”
The word barely escaped my mouth.
James didn’t say anything.
He didn’t need to.
The recording continued.
“I know you’re angry. I know you’re confused. But you need to understand something.”
My father paused.
And somehow that pause hurt more than his words.
“I wasn’t the one who started this.”
I felt my chest tighten.
Started what?
The message continued.
“Nathan found something he wasn’t supposed to find.”
James stepped closer.
His face had changed.
He wasn’t surprised anymore.
He was listening carefully.
“He thought he could protect you by keeping you away from the truth.”
My eyes filled with tears.
Because that sounded exactly like Nathan.
Always protecting.
Always carrying everything alone.
“But he underestimated how far they would go.”
The recording stopped.
Silence.
Just silence.
I stared at the screen.
Waiting.
Hoping there was more.
There wasn’t.
“That’s it?” I whispered.
James nodded slowly.
“That’s all.”
I laughed once.
A broken sound.
“My father left me a warning that explains nothing.”
James looked at the boxes around us.
“No.”
I looked at him.
“What?”
“He explained one thing.”
“What?”
James pointed at my phone.
“Your father is afraid.”
I shook my head.
“My father?”
“Yes.”
“Gerald doesn’t get afraid.”
James looked at me.
“Everyone gets afraid when they realize they’re not the person controlling the situation.”
I looked down at the silver key in my hand.
Three seventeen.
Nathan had hidden this for a reason.
He had known I would find it eventually.
He had known I would need answers.
But now the answers were creating more questions.
My father was involved.
But maybe not in the way I thought.
My mother was lying.
My sister was part of the plan.
Dr. Voss was building a case.
And Nathan had been investigating someone behind all of them.
I walked toward the boxes.
“What do we do now?”
James opened the first one.
Inside were folders.
Hundreds of pages.
Nathan’s handwriting covered the labels.
Dates.
Names.
Locations.
I picked up the first folder.
The label made my stomach drop.
WHITMORE FAMILY FINANCIAL ACTIVITY.
I opened it.
Inside were records of money transfers.
My father.
My mother.
Chloe.
And one account I didn’t recognize.
The account holder was hidden behind a company name.
A company that meant nothing to me.
But Nathan had circled it.
Several times.
“What is this?”
James took the folder.
His expression changed.
“I’ve seen this company before.”
“Where?”
He turned the page.
“During another investigation.”
I waited.
James looked uncomfortable.
“Nathan wasn’t only looking into your family.”
I already knew that.
“Who else?”
James didn’t answer.
Instead, he opened the laptop from the box.
The screen required a password.
I looked at it.
Then I noticed something written on a sticky note beside it.
A phrase.
Something only Nathan would know.
My hands trembled as I typed.
The password was accepted.
The screen opened.
There were folders.
Videos.
Documents.
Photos.
One folder was named:
FOR FAY ONLY.
I clicked it.
Inside was one video file.
Recorded two weeks before Nathan died.
I stared at the date.
Two weeks.
He had recorded this while sleeping beside me.
While telling me everything was fine.
I pressed play.
Nathan appeared on the screen.
My breath caught.
Seeing him alive almost broke me.
He looked tired.
Not physically.
Emotionally.
Like someone who had been carrying something too heavy for too long.
“Fay,” he said.
My tears fell instantly.
“If you’re watching this, then I’m sorry.”
I covered my mouth.
His voice.
His face.
It was too real.
“I wanted to tell you everything myself.”
He looked away from the camera.
“But I knew you wouldn’t leave them.”
I closed my eyes.
Because he was right.
“I knew you would defend your family. I knew you would look for reasons they weren’t responsible.”
A painful smile appeared on his face.
“That’s one of the reasons I loved you.”
I wiped my tears.
Nathan continued.
“But it’s also the reason I had to protect you without your permission.”
The room went silent.
James watched the screen.
“You need to understand something, Fay.”
Nathan leaned closer.
“The money was never the target.”
My eyebrows pulled together.
“What?”
“The inheritance.”
He shook his head.
“They don’t care about eight and a half million dollars.”
I felt cold.
“Then what do they care about?”
Nathan looked directly into the camera.
“You.”
The word hit me harder than anything else.
Me.
Not my money.
Not my properties.
Me.
“Your family has been preparing for this for years.”
I stopped breathing.
Years?
“They believe you have something they need.”
James moved closer.
“What?”
Nathan continued.
“Something your mother took from your grandmother.”
My heart raced.
My grandmother?
I had never heard anything about this.
“My grandmother died when I was young.”
Nathan nodded in the video.
“I know.”
He looked at the camera.
“That’s why you were never supposed to remember.”
My hands went cold.
The video paused.
Not because it ended.
Because the screen went black.
I looked at James.
“What happened?”
He checked the laptop.
“The file stopped.”
“Can you recover it?”
He tried.
Nothing.
Then another folder appeared automatically.
A folder that wasn’t there before.
Created moments ago.
James stared at the screen.
“That’s impossible.”
“What?”
He pointed.
The folder name.
My blood turned cold.
Because it wasn’t named after Nathan.
It wasn’t named after me.
It was named:
GERALD’S CONFESSION.
James clicked it.
A single audio file appeared.
Recorded today.
Not six months ago.
Not before Nathan died.
Today.
My phone suddenly vibrated.
Unknown number.
One message.
Stop listening before you hear the truth.
Another message appeared.
This time, with an attachment.
A live location.
James looked at his own phone.
His face changed.
“Fay…”
“What?”
He slowly turned his screen toward me.
The location was not my parents’ house.
May you like
It was the storage facility.
And the timestamp showed someone had entered the building less than one minute ago.
