Chapter 15 - The Recording.
Thomas watched the video twice.
Megan watched it once.
Then she walked into the hallway and cried.
I did not.
I had moved beyond crying.
The footage showed Andrew crushing the medication.
It showed Lorraine handing him my wine.
It showed them discussing papers I was expected to sign the next morning.
Those papers turned out to be preliminary documents connected to Parker-Morgan Property Holdings.
I remembered Andrew asking me to sign a “routine tax authorization” while I was still dizzy.
I had refused because I could not focus on the page.
That refusal might have saved everything.
Police took possession of the footage.
Andrew and Lorraine were both asked to surrender themselves for questioning.
Lorraine arrived with an attorney.
Andrew did not.
For several hours, no one knew where he was.
His phone had been turned off.
His apartment was empty.
The lake cottage was empty.
Then my bank notified me that someone had attempted to access a safe-deposit box.
The box was registered jointly to Andrew and me.
I had forgotten it existed.
Years earlier, we used it to store copies of property documents.
The branch refused Andrew access because of the fraud alert.
Security footage showed him leaving shortly after nine.
Police began searching for him.
Around noon, Rebecca called.
“Claire.”
Her voice sounded terrified.
“What happened?”
“Andrew contacted Natalie.”
“What?”
“He wants to meet her.”
“Tell her absolutely not.”
“She already replied.”
My heart dropped.
“Why?”
“He said he would tell her everything.”
“Rebecca.”
“I know.”
“Where is she?”
Rebecca gave me an address.
An abandoned restaurant near the lake.
Police were notified immediately.
Natalie agreed to cooperate.
She wore a recording device.
Undercover officers positioned themselves nearby.
I was told to remain away.
I did.
But sitting inside Thomas’s office while another woman faced my husband felt unbearable.
Natalie entered the restaurant at 1:14 p.m.
Andrew arrived six minutes later.
According to the audio later played for me, he sounded desperate.
He begged Natalie to retract her statements.
He promised money.
He claimed Lorraine was responsible for everything.
Then Natalie asked the question I needed answered.
“Did you drug Claire?”
Andrew remained silent for almost twenty seconds.
Then he said, “I never wanted to hurt her.”
Natalie pushed.
“That isn’t an answer.”
“It was one pill.”
My stomach turned.
“One?”
“She wouldn’t sign.”
“And if she had?”
Andrew began crying.
“I was trying to save everything.”
“By stealing her money?”
“I needed time.”
“By getting life insurance?”
“That was the lender.”
“By telling me you were divorced?”
“I loved you.”
Natalie’s voice hardened.
“You told Claire that too.”
Then Andrew made his final mistake.
He admitted Lorraine knew about the plan.
He said his mother believed I owed them the house after years of “making Andrew feel inferior.”
He claimed Lorraine suggested using her medication because I was too suspicious when sober.
Police entered moments later.
Andrew did not resist.
He was arrested on multiple charges related to financial fraud and evidence connected to the drugging allegation.
When Thomas told me, I felt no victory.
Only exhaustion.
Then came the final line of the recorded conversation.
Natalie had asked Andrew why someone broke into my house.
Andrew responded.
“That wasn’t me.”
Natalie asked who did it.
Andrew whispered.
“My mother.”
Lorraine had returned to my house after being removed.
And according to Andrew, she had been searching for one specific document.
May you like
A document involving the trust.
If she found it before the police did, she believed she could still take the house.
