Chapter 7 - THE MUSIC BOX
The apartment had been cleared after Hannah’s death because rent went unpaid while Daniel remained in custody. Rebecca placed the children’s belongings in storage before her accident, and the county helped Arthur obtain lawful access. The boxes contained clothes, schoolbooks, photographs, and the ordinary evidence of a family living carefully within narrow means.
Arthur found the music box inside a plastic container marked CHRISTMAS.
It was a small wooden box with a broken winding mechanism and a faded picture of a carousel on the lid. Ethan said Daniel used to open it on quiet evenings and tell Lily that even broken things could keep something valuable inside.
Arthur turned it over.
A narrow seam ran along the bottom.
The base had been replaced.
Inside was a small flash drive wrapped in tissue paper.
Arthur wanted to plug it into his own computer immediately, but Morgan insisted the device be imaged under forensic supervision. Daniel’s current defense attorney, Olivia Grant, attended because the drive likely contained material relevant to his case.
The files included original accounting ledgers, vendor-registration histories, and screenshots from the foundation’s financial system.
Then they found a video.
Daniel sat in a dim apartment room speaking directly to the camera. Hannah was visible behind him, sitting on the sofa under a blanket.
“If something happens to me,” Daniel began, “the transactions in this folder are not complete by themselves. The critical issue is who controlled the accounts when the invoices were approved.”
He displayed two access reports.
One was recent.
One came from twelve years earlier.
Both pointed toward Victor Shaw’s administrative systems.
Daniel continued. “I believe the same person who framed me before is using my identity again. This time the foundation money has been routed back into Bennett Industrial Group ahead of the acquisition.”
Hannah leaned forward.
“Tell him about the medical application.”
Daniel looked at her.
“It matters.”
He nodded reluctantly.
“Hannah applied for assistance through the foundation my mother created. The claim was denied while money was being moved out through companies that performed no identifiable services.”
His voice became quieter.
“I’m not asking my father to believe me because I’m his son. I’m asking him to look at the records he never looked at before.”
Arthur paused the video.
He had spent years telling himself Daniel refused to accept responsibility.
Daniel had been asking him to investigate.
The video’s final minutes created a new layer of mystery.
Daniel said Victor could not authorize certain foundation transfers without approval from a second trustee.
The trustee was not Martin Pierce.
It was Arthur Bennett.
Arthur stared at the screen.
He had never approved those transactions.
Grant immediately requested every foundation document carrying Arthur’s signature.
The file contained seven approvals made during periods when Arthur was traveling or recovering from minor surgery.
Some were electronically signed.
Others bore scanned handwritten signatures.
Arthur did not recognize the transactions.
The fraud had not merely used Daniel’s identity.
It had used his father’s too.
The midpoint setup became clear. Victor apparently exploited the estrangement between them to operate on both sides of a false conflict.
Arthur believed Daniel stole.
Daniel believed Arthur knowingly approved the transactions.
Neither spoke directly enough to discover that both identities had been used.
The final file on the drive contained a short message from Hannah.
Arthur, if you’re seeing this, please don’t make the children prove their father deserves love before you help him.
Arthur closed his eyes.
May you like
He could not change what she believed about him.
He could decide what he did next.
