Chapter 7 - THE FIRST SIDE
They listened to the cassette in the library.
Not uploaded.
Not copied to family servers.
Malcolm found an old archival player from the mansion's media room.
Elliot Crane's attorney joined by phone.
Isolde's lawyer joined too.
Rowan wanted no one later saying the tape disappeared inside a Vale house.
The first voice belonged to Thomas.
Younger.
Breathing hard.
You were driving.
Then Adrian.
Rowan's father.
Keep your voice down.
Rowan looked at the machine.
He had not heard Adrian's voice in seven years.
Not really.
Old charity videos did not count.
The tape continued.
Thomas:
Peter Sloan is dead.
Adrian:
I know.
Silence on the recording.
Then Thomas:
You took the keys from me.
Adrian:
You handed them over.
Thomas:
Because you said you'd fire me.
Adrian:
And you still did it.
Rowan closed his eyes.
There.
Adrian drunk.
Thomas afraid.
Both choosing.
Different responsibility.
Then Thomas said:
Genevieve was in the car. She knows.
Everyone looked at her.
Genevieve did not flinch.
“I told you I was.”
“No.”
Rowan said.
“You said Dad was the passenger.”
She held his eyes.
“Yes.”
The tape continued.
Adrian:
My wife is not becoming part of this.
Thomas laughed.
She already is.
Then the sound changed.
A door.
Footsteps.
Genevieve's younger voice entered faintly.
Adrian, Julian says the police are downstairs.
Current Genevieve closed her eyes.
Isolde stared at her.
“You were there.”
“Yes.”
“From the beginning.”
“Yes.”
Rowan stopped the tape.
His mother said:
“Keep playing.”
He did.
Thomas:
I won't take this.
Adrian:
You've already told them you were driving.
Thomas:
Because Julian told me Peter might still live.
Silence.
That changed something.
Thomas first lied while believing the cyclist might survive.
Then Peter Sloan died at the hospital.
The lie became vehicular manslaughter.
Thomas wanted to correct it.
Adrian said:
Then correct it. And explain why you gave a drunk man the keys, moved me after the crash, lied to police and contaminated the scene. Explain all of it.
Not a false threat.
Thomas had exposure.
Not equal exposure.
But real.
Then Adrian said:
Or let Julian make the deal. Marianne gets protected. Isolde gets protected.
Isolde stopped breathing at the sound of her own name.
She had been eighteen months old.
The tape clicked.
End of Side One.
No threat to take Isolde away.
Not yet.
Genevieve whispered:
“That is where I stopped listening.”
Rowan turned.
“You heard this?”
“In 2001.”
“And did nothing.”
“I confronted Adrian.”
“What happened?”
“He told me Thomas had already taken the plea.”
“So?”
Genevieve stared at her son.
“So I had two young children, a company that employed fourteen thousand people, a husband facing prison if the truth surfaced, and a dead man's family who had already settled based on the official story.”
“That is not an answer.”
“No.”
She swallowed.
“I chose my family.”
Isolde looked at her.
“At the cost of mine.”
Genevieve did not defend herself.
“Yes.”
That was worse than denial.
Rowan reached for the cassette.
Isolde stopped him.
“My turn.”
She flipped it.
Side Two.
The machine clicked.
Static.
Then Julian Vale's voice.
Young.
Calm.
Lawyerly even at forty-three.
Thomas, if you change your statement now, child services will hear what Marianne did last year.
Isolde went completely still.
Rowan looked at her.
She whispered:
“What did my mother do?”
Thomas's voice came through the speaker.
Not angry anymore.
Terrified.
Leave my daughter out of this.
Julian answered:
Then stop changing the story.
The tape continued.
May you like
And Genevieve whispered:
“I never heard this.”
