{"id":2879,"date":"2026-09-15T13:07:01","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T13:07:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thechapterstory.online\/?p=2879"},"modified":"2026-09-15T13:07:01","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T13:07:01","slug":"part-8-patricias-confession-exposed-the-betrayal-inside-our-family-but-dads-hidden-recording-revealed-she-had-never-been-arthurs-most-dangerous-informant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thechapterstory.online\/?p=2879","title":{"rendered":"PART 8 \u2013 Patricia\u2019s Confession Exposed the Betrayal Inside Our Family, but Dad\u2019s Hidden Recording Revealed She Had Never Been Arthur\u2019s Most Dangerous Informant"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Roger did not shout.<\/p>\n<p>That frightened Patricia more than shouting would have.<\/p>\n<p>He stood in the center of Dad\u2019s garage with the phone pressed to his ear and asked quietly, \u201cHow long?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Patricia sobbed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRoger\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHow long have you worked for Arthur?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI never worked for him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The photograph lay on the evidence table between us.<\/p>\n<p>Arthur.<\/p>\n<p>Patricia.<\/p>\n<p>Two weeks before Dad died.<\/p>\n<p>Roger stared at it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTry again.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was scared.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo was I.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo, you don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>His voice broke.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou watched me spend eleven years trying to understand who killed my father.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI didn\u2019t know he would die.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Nobody moved.<\/p>\n<p>Detective Reyes raised one hand, signaling us not to interrupt.<\/p>\n<p>Patricia continued.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cArthur told me Daniel had stolen company information.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Miguel muttered, \u201cOf course he did.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Roger ignored him.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat did you tell Arthur?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhere your dad kept papers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHow did you know?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe trusted me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Roger closed his eyes.<\/p>\n<p>Dad had trusted Patricia before she married Roger.<\/p>\n<p>She had worked part-time doing invoices at the garage while studying accounting.<\/p>\n<p>I remembered that suddenly.<\/p>\n<p>She used to bring sandwiches.<\/p>\n<p>Dad called her Patty.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe knew the shop,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n<p>Roger looked at me.<\/p>\n<p>The realization landed.<\/p>\n<p>He returned to the call.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDad told you about the wall?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut you told Arthur.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI told him Daniel hid things in the building.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat isn\u2019t what you said five minutes ago.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Patricia went silent.<\/p>\n<p>Roger\u2019s voice hardened.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhere are you?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt home.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Reyes shook his head and wrote something.<\/p>\n<p>He whispered to an officer.<\/p>\n<p>The officer left.<\/p>\n<p>Roger asked, \u201cDid you know about the ledger?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHow?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cArthur showed me pages.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBefore your dad died.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Roger looked like he had been struck.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou knew Dad had evidence tying Arthur to crimes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI knew there were payments.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd you still helped him?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was twenty-five.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy father owed money.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Roger laughed once.<\/p>\n<p>A terrible sound.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere it is.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cArthur said he would clear the debt.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHow much?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Patricia whispered, \u201cForty thousand.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>My father had died over a debt smaller than the trust interest Mom ignored in a year.<\/p>\n<p>I had to sit down.<\/p>\n<p>Roger stood motionless.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou gave Arthur information about my father for forty thousand dollars?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo. It wasn\u2019t like that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat was it like?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe said nobody would be hurt.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Miguel looked away.<\/p>\n<p>He had heard that excuse too many times.<\/p>\n<p>Patricia cried harder.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAfter Daniel died, I tried to stop.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Roger said nothing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut Arthur had photographs. Recordings. Proof I met with him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo he owned you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThen why didn\u2019t you tell me?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBecause you would leave.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Roger looked at the photograph again.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMaybe I should have.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Reyes stepped closer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMrs. Lopez, this is Detective Martin Reyes. Do not leave your residence. Officers are on the way to speak with you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The line went silent.<\/p>\n<p>Then Patricia whispered, \u201cRoger.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He ended the call.<\/p>\n<p>For several seconds, the garage seemed to hold its breath.<\/p>\n<p>Roger turned away from us.<\/p>\n<p>I wanted to hate Patricia cleanly.<\/p>\n<p>It would have been easier.<\/p>\n<p>But fear had been Arthur\u2019s most reliable currency.<\/p>\n<p>He had spent it on Mom.<\/p>\n<p>On Dad.<\/p>\n<p>On Roger.<\/p>\n<p>On Patricia.<\/p>\n<p>Every secret created another person he could control.<\/p>\n<p>Isabel stood beside the sealed evidence.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat happens now?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Reyes looked at her.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf the ledger is authentic, we reopen Daniel Lopez\u2019s death as a homicide.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd the adoption?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDifferent jurisdiction, but the documents go to state and federal authorities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Miguel added, \u201cAnd once the ledger becomes public, every name in it will start hiring lawyers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Reyes gave him a look.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is evidence, not tonight\u2019s broadcast.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Miguel raised both hands.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The cassette tape remained sealed.<\/p>\n<p>I could not stop looking at it.<\/p>\n<p>Dad\u2019s voice might be on it.<\/p>\n<p>Eleven years after his death, that possibility hurt in a way I had not expected.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCan we listen?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Reyes hesitated.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe should preserve the original.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are machines here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Roger looked toward the office.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDad had a cassette deck.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Reyes sighed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe make a controlled copy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It took nearly an hour.<\/p>\n<p>A forensic technician arrived.<\/p>\n<p>The cassette was photographed, cataloged, and duplicated to a digital recorder.<\/p>\n<p>We gathered in Dad\u2019s cramped office.<\/p>\n<p>Dust covered the desk.<\/p>\n<p>A faded photograph of Roger and me still sat beside the old computer.<\/p>\n<p>The technician pressed play.<\/p>\n<p>Static.<\/p>\n<p>Then Dad\u2019s voice.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSeptember fourteenth, eleven twenty-three p.m.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I gripped the desk.<\/p>\n<p>He sounded exactly as I remembered.<\/p>\n<p>Older.<\/p>\n<p>Tired.<\/p>\n<p>But alive.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you\u2019re hearing this, I either got paranoid for nothing or I finally ran out of luck.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Roger lowered his head.<\/p>\n<p>Dad continued.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMariana, if this gets to you, I\u2019m sorry.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>My throat closed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI thought evidence would make men like Arthur careful. I was wrong. Evidence makes frightened men dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A chair scraped on the recording.<\/p>\n<p>Dad breathed close to the microphone.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe ledger is real. Harold has copies of some payments, not all. Arthur believes I\u2019m hiding the original in the garage. Let him believe that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>We exchanged looks.<\/p>\n<p>The ledger we found might not be the original.<\/p>\n<p>Dad said, \u201cThe book in the wall is bait.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Reyes leaned forward.<\/p>\n<p>Nobody spoke.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe real records are not paper.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Miguel whispered, \u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dad continued.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI copied bank transfers, court payments, hospital records, security reports, and internal Aranda correspondence to microfilm and duplicated it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Reyes looked toward the cylinder.<\/p>\n<p>The microfilm.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe set behind the wall is one copy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dad paused.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is another.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I stared at the recorder.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhere?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As if answering me, Dad said, \u201cMariana knows where.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>My heart sank.<\/p>\n<p>Mom was dead.<\/p>\n<p>Dad continued.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe hates that I involved her. She\u2019s right.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Then his tone changed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s something else Arthur cannot know I discovered.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The recording hissed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI thought Eduardo ordered everything.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Isabel straightened.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe didn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>We all looked at one another.<\/p>\n<p>Dad said, \u201cEduardo approved taking Isabella. He approved threatening us. He signed payments. That\u2019s enough to damn him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>My grandfather\u2019s confession matched that.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut Daniel\u2019s death plan\u2014if I die\u2014won\u2019t come from Eduardo.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I felt cold.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cArthur has been moving money through shell companies without his father\u2019s knowledge for years.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Miguel whispered, \u201cFraud.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dad continued.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s building something separate. Insurance payouts. land acquisitions. judges. private security.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Then came the sentence that changed the investigation again.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd he has someone inside my family.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Roger\u2019s eyes closed.<\/p>\n<p>Patricia.<\/p>\n<p>We already knew.<\/p>\n<p>Or thought we did.<\/p>\n<p>Dad said, \u201cNot Patty.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Roger\u2019s head jerked up.<\/p>\n<p>The room went completely silent.<\/p>\n<p>Dad\u2019s voice came through the static.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI know Arthur met with Patricia. I confronted her. She admitted it. She\u2019s scared and she\u2019s made mistakes, but she came to me yesterday and told me Arthur asked about the wall.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Roger stared at the photograph.<\/p>\n<p>Dad had known.<\/p>\n<p>And forgiven her enough to distinguish betrayal from something worse.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI told Patty to keep pretending she was useful to him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Roger covered his mouth.<\/p>\n<p>Patricia had been working both sides.<\/p>\n<p>Dad continued.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe doesn\u2019t know who the real source is.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>My skin prickled.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI do.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The tape clicked.<\/p>\n<p>Then stopped.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo,\u201d I whispered.<\/p>\n<p>The technician checked the machine.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s not the end.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He pressed play again.<\/p>\n<p>Static returned.<\/p>\n<p>Dad\u2019s voice resumed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe source is someone Arthur has controlled since before Elena was born.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I looked at Roger.<\/p>\n<p>He looked at me.<\/p>\n<p>Dad said a name.<\/p>\n<p>But the tape distorted.<\/p>\n<p>A burst of mechanical noise swallowed it.<\/p>\n<p>Miguel swore.<\/p>\n<p>The technician replayed the section.<\/p>\n<p>Same result.<\/p>\n<p>One syllable surfaced.<\/p>\n<p>Then static.<\/p>\n<p>Reyes asked, \u201cCan audio restoration recover it?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cProbably.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHow long?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The technician ignored the question and marked the timestamp.<\/p>\n<p>Dad\u2019s voice became clearer again.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf Roger finds this, son, don\u2019t blame Elena.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Roger frowned.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy would I blame you?\u201d he whispered.<\/p>\n<p>Dad continued.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe doesn\u2019t know what happened before she was born.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I felt every eye turn toward me.<\/p>\n<p>My stomach tightened.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is one more child connected to Mariana\u2019s disappearance.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Isabel grabbed the edge of the desk.<\/p>\n<p>Roger stared at me.<\/p>\n<p>Dad\u2019s voice softened.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI promised Mariana I would never tell Elena unless the Arandas came for her.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I could barely breathe.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne more child?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The recording continued.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe baby everyone believes died in 1987 was not the only birth hidden that year.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Isabel looked at me.<\/p>\n<p>Her face showed the same confusion I felt.<\/p>\n<p>Dad said, \u201cMariana gave birth to twins.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The word seemed to strike the walls.<\/p>\n<p>Twins.<\/p>\n<p>Isabel staggered backward.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Roger grabbed a chair.<\/p>\n<p>I could not move.<\/p>\n<p>Dad continued.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne girl became Isabel Aranda.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The tape hissed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe other disappeared before Mariana woke from anesthesia.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Isabel covered her mouth.<\/p>\n<p>My mind raced through photographs.<\/p>\n<p>Medical records.<\/p>\n<p>The baby in Mom\u2019s arms.<\/p>\n<p>The torn picture.<\/p>\n<p>The settlement referencing one female child.<\/p>\n<p>One.<\/p>\n<p>Not two.<\/p>\n<p>Because somebody had erased the second completely.<\/p>\n<p>Dad said, \u201cFor years we believed she died.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A long pause.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThen I found a hospital payment made three days after the birth.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Miguel leaned toward the recorder.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPaid to a private nurse.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dad named her.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEvelyn Shaw.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Reyes wrote it down.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe payment came from an account Arthur controlled.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dad breathed heavily.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI found another record eighteen years later.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Static.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA tuition payment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Another crackle.<\/p>\n<p>Then:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe second girl lived.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Isabel began crying silently.<\/p>\n<p>I reached toward her.<\/p>\n<p>This time she did not pull away.<\/p>\n<p>Dad continued.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t know where she is now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The recording shifted as if he moved closer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut Arthur does.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The cassette clicked again.<\/p>\n<p>This time the technician stopped it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s more on Side B.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Nobody moved for several seconds.<\/p>\n<p>Roger finally whispered, \u201cMom had twins.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Isabel wiped her face.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne sister was taken to Arthur.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I finished the thought.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd another was taken somewhere else.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Miguel looked at the evidence.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat creates a second living witness to the original abduction.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUnless she doesn\u2019t know who she is,\u201d Reyes said.<\/p>\n<p>My phone vibrated.<\/p>\n<p>Unknown number.<\/p>\n<p>Everyone looked at it.<\/p>\n<p>I almost ignored the call.<\/p>\n<p>Then a text appeared.<\/p>\n<p>YOU FOUND DANIEL\u2019S RECORDING.<\/p>\n<p>Another message followed before I could react.<\/p>\n<p>ASK HAROLD WHY HE NEVER TOLD YOU ABOUT SOFIA.<\/p>\n<p>I stared at the screen.<\/p>\n<p>The name did not make sense.<\/p>\n<p>Sofia?<\/p>\n<p>My best friend?<\/p>\n<p>Miguel leaned over my shoulder.<\/p>\n<p>His face changed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I showed him.<\/p>\n<p>His eyes narrowed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s impossible.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I thought of Sofia\u2019s age.<\/p>\n<p>Thirty-nine.<\/p>\n<p>Older than me by six years.<\/p>\n<p>Born in 1987.<\/p>\n<p>The same year as Isabel.<\/p>\n<p>I remembered how quickly she believed me.<\/p>\n<p>How fiercely she had pushed me toward Harold.<\/p>\n<p>How her uncle Miguel had an archive box already filled with Aranda material.<\/p>\n<p>My stomach turned.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Roger read the message.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWho is Sofia?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy best friend.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Isabel stared at me.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHow old is she?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I already knew.<\/p>\n<p>But saying it aloud made the room tilt.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThirty-nine.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Miguel shook his head hard.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo. I\u2019ve known her since she was a child.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSince what age?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He opened his mouth.<\/p>\n<p>Then stopped.<\/p>\n<p>I saw the answer before he gave it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThree.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The room became silent.<\/p>\n<p>Sofia had entered Miguel\u2019s family at three years old.<\/p>\n<p>Not as his daughter.<\/p>\n<p>As his sister\u2019s foster child, later adopted.<\/p>\n<p>I remembered fragments she had told me over the years.<\/p>\n<p>No original birth certificate.<\/p>\n<p>Closed records.<\/p>\n<p>A mother who supposedly abandoned her.<\/p>\n<p>An adoption nobody discussed.<\/p>\n<p>My hands began shaking.<\/p>\n<p>Dad\u2019s recording had said the second twin disappeared before Mom woke.<\/p>\n<p>A nurse.<\/p>\n<p>A payment.<\/p>\n<p>A child who resurfaced in records eighteen years later.<\/p>\n<p>Miguel grabbed his phone.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m calling her.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>No answer.<\/p>\n<p>Again.<\/p>\n<p>Voicemail.<\/p>\n<p>I called.<\/p>\n<p>Nothing.<\/p>\n<p>Then another message appeared on my screen.<\/p>\n<p>IF YOU WANT MARIANA\u2019S OTHER DAUGHTER ALIVE, BRING THE MICROFILM TO ARTHUR ALONE.<\/p>\n<p>A photograph arrived beneath it.<\/p>\n<p>Sofia sat in the back of a vehicle.<\/p>\n<p>Her hands were bound.<\/p>\n<p>Duct tape covered her mouth.<\/p>\n<p>Beside her face, someone held a newspaper from that morning.<\/p>\n<p>Isabel made a strangled sound.<\/p>\n<p>Miguel\u2019s chair crashed backward as he stood.<\/p>\n<p>Roger swore.<\/p>\n<p>Reyes grabbed his radio.<\/p>\n<p>I stared at my best friend.<\/p>\n<p>At the woman who might be my mother\u2019s missing daughter.<\/p>\n<p>At the sister Mom had believed dead for decades.<\/p>\n<p>Arthur had spent a lifetime turning blood into leverage.<\/p>\n<p>Now he had done it again.<\/p>\n<p>And this time, he expected me to make the same choice he had forced on my mother.<\/p>\n<p>One daughter for another.<\/p>\n<p>I looked at the microfilm sealed in police evidence.<\/p>\n<p>Then at the photograph of Sofia.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Reyes turned.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo what?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I felt something inside me settle.<\/p>\n<p>Arthur thought the story repeated because people did.<\/p>\n<p>Mom surrendered evidence to save her children.<\/p>\n<p>Dad hid evidence to protect us.<\/p>\n<p>Roger bargained.<\/p>\n<p>Patricia obeyed.<\/p>\n<p>Every one of them had been isolated first.<\/p>\n<p>I looked at Miguel.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cArthur wants me alone.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>His face hardened.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou are not going alone.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I turned to Detective Reyes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd we\u2019re not giving him the only copy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Reyes nodded slowly.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat are you thinking?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I looked at Isabel.<\/p>\n<p>She understood before I explained.<\/p>\n<p>Arthur had spent forty years controlling this family by making everyone believe they had to choose privately.<\/p>\n<p>So we would make his next choice public.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m thinking,\u201d I said, \u201cthat we stop negotiating like my mother is still hiding.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr>\n<h2><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/thechapterstory.online\/?p=2880\">Click here to continue reading: PART 9: Arthur Thought Sofia\u2019s Life Would Force Me Into Silence, Until We Turned His Private Ransom Demand Into Public Evidence<\/a><\/strong><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Roger did not shout. That frightened Patricia more than shouting would have. He stood in the center of Dad\u2019s garage with the phone pressed to his ear and asked quietly, &hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2871,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chapter-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thechapterstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thechapterstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thechapterstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thechapterstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thechapterstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2879"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thechapterstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2879\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2897,"href":"https:\/\/thechapterstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2879\/revisions\/2897"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thechapterstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thechapterstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thechapterstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thechapterstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}