Chapter 8 - THE VOICEMAIL THAT NEARLY DESTROYED THE FAMILY
Daniel Voss called again at 10:47 p.m.
This time, I was not alone.
Detective Vega had been informed about his voicemail.
She had advised me not to arrange a private meeting or attempt to question him.
Daniel was a person investigators wanted to locate and interview.
If he had evidence relating to Elena's death, it belonged in a formal investigation.
I answered on speaker with Vega listening through an agreed arrangement.
"Daniel."
"Mr. Bellini."
His voice sounded rough.
"Are you alone?"
"No."
There was a pause.
"I figured."
"You contacted me."
"I didn't expect you to trust me."
"Then tell me what you want."
He exhaled.
"Protection."
"From whom?"
"Your cousin."
I felt my heartbeat change.
"Vincent?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
Daniel didn't answer immediately.
I could hear a car engine somewhere near him.
Then he said:
"Because I know what he did twelve years ago."
Vega leaned toward the telephone.
"Mr. Voss, this is Detective Isabel Vega with the Chicago Police Department."
"I'm willing to discuss how you can safely contact investigators."
Daniel swore under his breath.
"You brought cops into this?"
I remained silent.
Vega continued.
"You're the person who initiated this call."
"If you have information about serious crimes, we can arrange for you to speak with the appropriate investigators and your attorney."
Daniel laughed bitterly.
"Attorneys cost money."
"One can be arranged if you're eligible."
"You don't understand."
"He has people everywhere."
Vega didn't argue.
She simply asked whether he was injured or in immediate danger.
Daniel said no.
Then he made a demand.
He wanted to know whether I would personally guarantee that he wouldn't be harmed.
I looked at Rachel.
She stood near the doorway with Olivia.
Neither had spoken.
I answered slowly.
"I won't send anyone after you."
"But I can't promise what the legal consequences will be."
Daniel was silent.
Then he said something that changed the room.
"Your wife knew."
I gripped the edge of the table.
"Knew what?"
"That Vincent was taking money."
"That he'd started moving it through our fleet company."
"She found out he was buying control of the business using money that should've gone to her foundation."
I closed my eyes.
"Did he kill her?"
Daniel began breathing heavily.
"Not like that."
"What does that mean?"
"He wanted her frightened."
"He wanted her to stop."
"Daniel, answer the question."
"I was told to make sure her car couldn't leave her stranded near the city."
"Just a breakdown."
"That's what they said."
My stomach turned.
"Who said it?"
"Vincent."
The word hung in the room.
Daniel continued.
"I told the mechanic to sign off on a temporary repair."
"He refused."
"So I changed the work order."
I could hear Olivia beginning to cry.
Rachel put an arm around her.
I wanted to smash the telephone.
Instead, I forced my voice to remain steady.
"Did you damage the car?"
Daniel hesitated.
"I arranged for the brake line to be tampered with."
"It was supposed to make the vehicle unsafe enough to keep her from traveling."
"She was supposed to notice the problem before driving."
I felt sick.
"A brake line isn't a warning."
"I know."
"People die when brakes fail."
"I know."
His voice cracked.
"When I heard about the accident, I went to Vincent."
"He told me the rain caused it."
"He said the service issue would never be connected."
I stared at the telephone.
"You've known this for twelve years."
Daniel began crying.
Not loudly.
Just a broken, exhausted sound.
"I was thirty then."
"I had debts."
"Vincent paid me more money than I'd ever seen."
"Then he kept paying."
"Whenever he needed something."
I looked toward Olivia.
Her face was white.
"Like watching my daughter?"
Daniel didn't answer.
Vega asked him again whether he would provide a location where officers could meet him.
He hesitated.
Then the sound of a vehicle door closing interrupted the call.
"Someone's here."
His breathing quickened.
"Daniel?" Vega said.
There was a sharp sound.
Then the connection ended.
I was already reaching for my coat.
Olivia stepped in front of the door.
"No."
I looked at her.
"He knows what happened to your mother."
"I heard."
"He's in danger."
"Then let the police help him."
Her voice shook.
"Dad, please."
I looked toward Vega, who was communicating with other investigators.
She was taking the call seriously.
She was doing her job.
I knew if I went searching for Daniel myself, I could create an entirely new danger.
For him.
For the officers.
For Olivia.
I took my hand off my coat.
"All right."
Rachel guided Olivia toward the couch.
My daughter sat down and covered her face.
I crouched in front of her.
"I'm sorry you had to hear that."
She looked up.
"Mom was driving a car somebody deliberately made unsafe."
I nodded.
"We don't have the full evidence yet."
"But that's what he said."
"Yes."
Olivia began sobbing.
For years, she had blamed herself for asking her mother to come home early that evening.
Elena had promised to help her finish a school project.
She left a message telling Olivia she would be there before bedtime.
Then the police came to the house.
Olivia had spent twelve years believing her mother might have lived if she hadn't been trying to get home for her.
Now she had heard a man explain that the car was dangerous before Elena ever started driving.
"I thought it was because of me," Olivia whispered.
I felt something inside me break.
"No."
"She was coming home to help me."
"Sweetheart."
"If I hadn't asked her..."
"Olivia, no."
I took her face gently between my hands.
"Your mother died because something terrible happened."
"Not because you wanted her home."
"Not because you were eight."
"Not because you loved her."
She cried harder.
Rachel knelt beside us.
"Your mother was allowed to come home to her daughter," she said softly.
"That was never something she needed to be punished for."
I closed my eyes.
Rachel had found exactly the words I couldn't.
And I understood why Olivia had trusted her with her fear.
She didn't rush to erase pain.
She made room for it.
Later that night, Detective Vega told us Daniel had been located.
He was alive.
He had suffered minor injuries during an apparent confrontation in a parking area.
Officers had responded to the location after information developed from the call and related investigative work.
He was receiving medical attention.
Vega couldn't share the full circumstances yet.
But Daniel had agreed to speak with investigators after consulting counsel.
I sat down for the first time in hours.
"Is he safe?"
"For now."
"Will he testify?"
"That remains to be seen."
I looked toward Olivia's bedroom.
She was finally sleeping, with Rachel beside her.
"Detective, can you tell me one thing?"
"What?"
"Was the person who confronted him working for Vincent?"
"We're investigating that possibility."
I thanked her.
Then I hung up.
The next morning, the threats against Rachel intensified.
An anonymous account posted photographs of her entering the police station with Olivia.
The caption accused Rachel of exploiting the Bellini family for money.
Another post suggested she had manipulated Olivia into making false accusations.
Screenshots began circulating among employees and foundation volunteers.
Someone sent the images to Rachel's former college instructor.
Another sent them to the church where she helped manage a small scholarship fund.
Rachel discovered the posts when a volunteer called to ask whether she was all right.
For several minutes, she said nothing.
Then she opened her laptop.
I found her sitting at the dining table.
Her face was completely still.
"What happened?"
She turned the screen toward me.
I read the accusations.
I felt a familiar rush of rage.
"Marcus can find out who's behind this."
Rachel shook her head.
"The police need copies first."
She was already saving the public posts, addresses, and timestamps.
I sat beside her.
"Rachel, you shouldn't have to do this."
She looked at me.
"I know."
"Then let someone else handle it."
"Adrian, I've spent twelve years helping Olivia understand that she has the right to say no."
"Do you think I'm going to let these people frighten me into silence?"
I studied her.
"No."
She closed one tab and opened another.
"But I am tired."
Her voice broke.
That frightened me more than the anger.
Rachel rarely admitted when she was overwhelmed.
She had taken care of Olivia through grief, illness, school problems, teenage heartbreak, and every ordinary crisis between.
She had helped me survive Elena's death.
And I had almost never asked what she needed.
I moved my chair closer.
"Then stop for a while."
"I'll sit here."
She looked surprised.
"You have work."
"My work can wait."
For several minutes, we sat in silence.
Then Rachel leaned her forehead against her hands.
"I was twenty-three when I came to your house."
"I had no idea how to take care of a child who had just lost her mother."
I shook my head.
"You were extraordinary."
"No."
"I was scared all the time."
"Olivia wouldn't eat."
"She wouldn't sleep."
"She kept asking when Elena was coming home."
Rachel swallowed.
"I used to sit outside her bedroom door because I didn't know what else to do."
I remembered those nights.
I remembered seeing Rachel asleep against the hallway wall, still holding Olivia's favorite blanket.
I had assumed she was simply doing her job.
"I never thanked you properly," I said.
She gave a sad smile.
"You paid me."
"That's not what I mean."
"I know."
I took her hand.
It was the first time I had done that without some practical reason.
She looked at our hands.
Then at me.
Neither of us moved.
For one fragile moment, the room seemed very quiet.
Then Olivia appeared in the doorway.
Her eyes were red.
"Rachel?"
Rachel immediately stood.
"What is it?"
Olivia held out her phone.
"I got something from Sophie."
Sophie was her closest college friend.
She had been with Olivia during several incidents involving Ethan.
Now she had found an old voice message.
Ethan had sent it to Sophie after Olivia blocked him.
He wanted Sophie to persuade Olivia to meet him.
But near the end of the recording, another male voice could be heard in the background.
The man said:
"Tell her she'll be safer if her father signs the agreement."
Then Ethan answered:
"I don't even know what agreement you're talking about."
Olivia looked at me.
"Listen again."
We did.
Rachel recognized the background voice first.
"That's Vincent."
I felt my stomach drop.
Olivia enlarged the audio waveform on her phone, then stopped.
She wasn't trying to prove anything through an app.
She was simply replaying the recording so we could hear the conversation clearly.
The voice was unmistakably familiar to me.
The same calm tone.
The same clipped pronunciation.
My cousin.
The man who had proposed controlling Olivia's inheritance.
The man who had access to her drivers.
The man whose company records appeared beside the payments Elena had questioned.
Rachel looked at me.
"What agreement?"
I already knew.
Vincent's proposed voting proxy.
Olivia's phone vibrated again.
This time, the message came from an address she recognized.
Vincent's office.
The subject line read:
IMPORTANT DOCUMENTS FOR YOUR PROTECTION.
Attached was a twelve-page agreement.
The proposed arrangement gave Vincent temporary authority over the voting rights in Olivia's trust.
It also required her to acknowledge that concerns about her security had made independent management of her assets impractical.
Olivia read the first page.
Then she looked up.
"He created the danger."
"Now he wants me to give him control because I'm in danger."
For the first time, all of us understood the shape of his plan.
Vincent didn't need Olivia to disappear.
He needed her frightened enough to sign away the power Elena had left her.
May you like
And when the threats hadn't worked quickly enough, he had turned them against the one person Olivia trusted most.
Rachel.
