Chapter 9 - The Deal
Nora agreed to cooperate.
Not freely.
The attorney general offered protection from the most serious charges if she testified truthfully about the financial fraud and false accusation.
She would still face perjury, obstruction, and conspiracy charges.
I did not ask them to spare her.
I also did not ask them to punish her beyond the law.
Nora described the anniversary dinner in detail.
After our argument, Dylan followed her upstairs.
She told him the bleeding had worsened.
He wanted to take her to a hospital.
Then he saw my parents near the staircase.
He changed his mind.
“We can solve everything tonight,” he said.
My mother understood immediately.
She told Nora to lie down near the bottom step.
Nora refused.
Dylan grabbed her arm.
They argued.
She stepped backward.
Her foot slipped on the edge of a stair.
She fell three steps.
Not from the top.
Not because I touched her.
My father moved her farther from the staircase before guests entered the hall.
My mother began shouting my name.
Dylan told Nora that if she contradicted them, he would expose her role in the missing foundation money.
Then he added something worse.
He said the fall may have caused the miscarriage anyway.
“You can make it mean something,” he told her.
Nora allowed grief to become evidence.
My parents repeated the same story until everyone believed it.
The security recorder captured part of the staging.
My father tried to destroy it later.
Nora retrieved the damaged unit from the trash.
She hid it in Box 214 with the medical records and invoices.
She planned to confess.
Then Dylan showed her photographs of her signing fraudulent transfers.
She remained silent.
Until the key reached me.
“Who mailed it?” I asked.
May you like
Nora looked down.
“My daughter.”
