Chapter 14 - Isabella Finally Breaks
Laura arranged Isabella’s interview through prosecutors.
No deals were promised.
No immunity.
No guarantees.
Only one opportunity to tell the truth before Daniel’s lawyers controlled the narrative.
I watched from behind one-way glass.
Isabella sat at a metal table.
No makeup.
No jewelry.
No silk.
Her attorney, Victor Lane, sat beside her.
That concerned me.
Victor’s initials appeared in Rachel’s notebook.
Prosecutors knew.
They were watching him too.
The lead investigator placed Rachel’s letter on the table.
Isabella stared at it.
“Where did you find that?”
The investigator did not answer.
He placed a photograph of Daniel beside it.
Then another photograph.
Calvin Ross.
Isabella looked away.
“You know him?”
“No.”
“Daniel does.”
“I don’t know anything about Rachel’s accident.”
Victor interrupted.
“My client has answered.”
The investigator ignored him.
“We recovered financial communications between you and Daniel.”
Isabella swallowed.
“You told Nathan that Daniel knew what happened to Rachel.”
Victor turned toward her.
“You said what?”
Isabella looked trapped.
The investigator leaned forward.
“Tell us why.”
For nearly a minute, she said nothing.
Then she began.
“Daniel drank when he was angry.”
Victor whispered.
“Stop.”
Isabella continued.
“One night he said Nathan should be grateful.”
Victor grabbed her arm.
“Isabella.”
She pulled away.
“He said Rachel could have destroyed everything.”
The investigator asked.
“What exactly did Daniel say?”
Isabella stared at the table.
“He said he made one problem disappear before.”
My hands tightened behind the glass.
“And you continued working with him?”
Isabella laughed bitterly.
“I didn’t know if he was serious.”
“You accepted money.”
“Yes.”
“You helped him manipulate Nathan.”
“Yes.”
“You pressured Nathan to change the mansion deed.”
“Yes.”
“You attempted to access Maya’s trust.”
Her face changed.
Victor immediately spoke.
“My client invokes her right—”
“Yes.”
The word came from Isabella.
Victor stared at her.
She finally looked up.
“I wanted the trust.”
Even the investigator seemed surprised by the direct admission.
“Why?”
“Because Daniel told me Nathan would eventually leave me.”
Her voice shook.
“He said Rachel had always been the love of Nathan’s life.”
She laughed once.
“There was a dead woman in every room of that house.”
I thought about Rachel’s reading room.
About Isabella trying to erase photographs.
About the jealousy I had dismissed as insecurity.
The investigator asked.
“And Maya?”
Isabella’s face hardened again.
“She looked like Rachel.”
That sentence explained something monstrous.
Not everything.
But something.
“She looked at me the same way.”
“How?”
“Like she knew I didn’t belong there.”
The investigator’s voice became colder.
“She was eight.”
“I know.”
“You punished a child because she reminded you of her mother.”
Isabella covered her face.
For the first time, she cried.
I felt no satisfaction.
Only exhaustion.
Then the investigator asked the most important question.
“Did Daniel tell you to hurt Maya?”
“No.”
“Did he know you were hurting her?”
Isabella hesitated.
“Yes.”
My heart stopped.
“How?”
“I sent him recordings.”
Behind the glass, Marcus cursed quietly.
The investigator leaned closer.
“Recordings of what?”
Isabella whispered.
“Of Maya crying.”
“Why?”
“Daniel said if Nathan ever became suspicious, we needed proof Maya was emotionally unstable.”
I closed my eyes.
They had planned to turn my daughter’s suffering into evidence against her.
The investigator asked.
“Where are those recordings?”
Isabella looked toward Victor.
Victor’s face had gone pale.
Then she answered.
May you like
“Victor has them.”
Every person in the room turned toward her attorney.
