My Four Adopted Sons Betrayed My Daughter novel · Chapter 8 of 24

Chapter 8: Eli at Two in the Morning

Dario called at midnight with the owner of the fifth number.

"It's a company line," he said. "Cardwell Operations, cost center nine, issued to one employee."

"Jared."

"He wrote that message from the phone you pay for, Marisa."

I stood in my dark kitchen holding the counter.

"Send me the record," I said.

"It's on its way."

At two in the morning the front buzzer rang.

I went down in my robe and looked at the little screen by the door.

Eli stood on the steps with his hands in his pockets and his collar up.

There was no car at the curb.

"How did you get here?" I asked through the door.

"I walked from the bus stop."

"Do you know what time it is?"

"I know." His breath smoked in the light. "Please, Mom. Five minutes."

I let him in, and I did not take his coat.

We sat on the bottom stair in the front hall, where the sitter used to read to the boys when they were small, and he took a flash drive out of his pocket.

"This has Alessia's proposal on it," he said. "The original file, with the date it was made and her name in the author field. Jared had me delete it from the shared drive, and I didn't."

"Why not?"

"Because I knew it was hers."

He put the drive in my palm.

"There's a second file too."

"What is it?"

"I recorded the hallway." He looked at the floor.

"Thursday. I turned on my phone when we got to the door."

"You have that phone now."

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