Chapter 7 - Nathan’s Version
Nobody believed the photograph at first.
Detective Ellison called it manipulation.
I agreed.
Then Nathan sent an audio message.
“Daniel, Mom is going to blame everything on me.”
His voice shook.
“She already told Pike how to do it.”
A pause.
“I have proof.”
Ellison listened beside me.
“If police come through the front road, I burn everything.”
Another pause.
“If you come alone, I’ll give you Dad’s medical records and Harrow’s files.”
Then his voice hardened.
“But I want immunity.”
Ellison almost laughed.
“That’s not how immunity works.”
I knew.
Nathan knew too.
But fear makes people negotiate with whatever leverage remains.
We didn’t let me go alone.
Instead, police fitted me with a transmitter.
Tactical officers approached through the woods.
Ellison hated the plan.
So did I.
But Nathan had information about my father’s death.
And he had my mother.
If she was truly his hostage.
The river lodge looked abandoned.
One light glowed upstairs.
I entered through the front door.
“Nathan?”
“Kitchen.”
He stood behind the island.
Gun in hand.
My mother sat several feet away.
Her wrists were bound.
A cut marked her forehead.
I almost felt sorry for her.
Almost.
Nathan looked exhausted.
“Take off your coat.”
“No.”
“Daniel.”
“You invited me.”
His hand trembled.
“Don’t make this harder.”
“I think we passed hard when you put my wife in a coffin.”
His face twisted.
“That was her plan.”
My mother spoke.
“He’s lying.”
Nathan laughed.
There was nothing amused about it.
“Of course she says that.”
I looked between them.
“Who drugged Claire?”
Nathan swallowed.
“Harrow.”
“Who held her down?”
Silence.
“Nathan.”
He looked away.
“I did.”
The confession hit harder than expected.
My brother.
The boy who had followed me around our backyard.
The teenager whose first car I helped repair.
The best man at my wedding.
He had restrained my pregnant wife while another man injected her.
“Why?”
“She found everything.”
“So you tried to kill her?”
“No.”
“You put her in a coffin.”
“She wasn’t supposed to die.”
My mother’s voice cut in.
“Stop talking.”
Nathan screamed at her.
“You shut up!”
Then he looked at me.
“She said Harrow could keep Claire sedated. She said we’d get you to sign the cremation authorization, then substitute another body before cremation.”
I stared.
“What?”
“We were going to move Claire.”
“Where?”
He looked toward the floor.
“Out of state.”
“You expected me to think my wife and baby were dead for the rest of my life?”
Nathan’s eyes filled with something close to shame.
“She said it was the only way.”
My mother laughed softly.
“You’re pathetic.”
Nathan turned the gun toward her.
“Stop.”
She smiled.
“You agreed to everything.”
“You made me.”
“No one made you.”
That was the first truthful thing she had said all week.
I looked at Nathan.
“What happened to Dad?”
His face changed.
My mother stopped smiling.
Nathan whispered:
“He found out about my accounts.”
“The money you stole.”
“Yes.”
“He threatened to report you.”
“Yes.”
“Did you poison him?”
Nathan’s eyes moved toward my mother.
She said:
“Don’t.”
He looked back at me.
“The first time?”
My blood went cold.
“What do you mean, first time?”
“He didn’t die the first time.”
I stepped closer.
Nathan tightened his grip on the gun.
“Stay there.”
“What did you give him?”
“Harrow gave me something.”
My mother closed her eyes.
Nathan continued.
“I put it in Dad’s tea.”
My throat tightened.
“He got sick.”
“Yes.”
“But he survived.”
“Yes.”
“And three months later?”
Nathan’s breathing became shallow.
“That wasn’t me.”
I looked at my mother.
She stared straight ahead.
“Nathan.”
“She did it.”
My mother spoke calmly.
“You have no proof.”
Nathan laughed.
“I have Harrow.”
I froze.
“What?”
“He’s alive.”
“Where?”
Nathan pointed toward the basement.
My mother’s face changed.
For the first time, genuine panic.
Nathan said:
“He came here after Claire woke up.”
“Why?”
“Mom told him we had to leave the country.”
I looked at Evelyn.
“And?”
Nathan’s face hardened.
“She tried to kill him.”
I heard movement beneath the floor.
A muffled bang.
Police had heard it too.
Nathan pointed the gun toward the basement door.
“He’s tied up downstairs.”
My mother’s voice became venomous.
“You stupid little coward.”
Nathan looked at me.
“She was going to kill all of us eventually.”
Then the lights went out.
Everything became black.
A gunshot exploded through the kitchen.
I dropped.
Another shot.
Glass shattered.
Someone screamed.
When emergency lights flickered on, Nathan was on the floor.
Blood spread across his shoulder.
My mother was no longer tied to the chair.
One wrist hung free.
The rope had been cut.
And the gun was in her hand.
May you like
She aimed it at me.
“You should have stayed overseas.”
