Chapter 7
We left the chapel through the side hall.
Not alone.
Paul Ellis walked with us.
So did the funeral director, pale and shaken.
Leo held my hand so tightly his fingers hurt mine.
I welcomed the pain.
It meant he was there.
It meant Victoria had not reached him.
Behind us, the chapel had erupted into whispers.
Victoria’s voice rose once.
Then stopped.
Maybe someone blocked her.
Maybe she finally realized every eye in the room had changed.
In the small family waiting room, I locked the door.
Then I knelt in front of Leo.
“You were very brave.”
His face crumpled.
“I didn’t want Grandma to say bad things about you.”
I pulled him into my arms.
For a moment, I let myself shake.
Not sob.
Not collapse.
Just shake.
Because mothers are human after the door closes.
Paul stood near the window, facing away to give us privacy.
The funeral director asked softly, “Should I call the police?”
I looked at the phone in my hand.
Thomas’s phone.
Thomas’s recording.
Thomas’s unfinished warning.
I said, “Yes.”
Leo looked up.
“Did I do something wrong?”
“No.”
My answer was immediate.
“You protected Dad’s words.”
That seemed to help.
A little.
While we waited, I checked the phone without playing the file.
There were more saved items than I had seen that morning.
An audio file.
A folder of screenshots.
Several notes.
A locked document requiring Thomas’s passcode.
I knew the passcode.
Our anniversary.
My hand hovered over the screen.
I wanted to open everything.
I also knew enough now not to handle evidence carelessly.
Paul seemed to read my face.
“Don’t do it alone,” he said.
I looked at him.
“Did Thomas tell you anything?”
His jaw tightened.
“Only that if something happened, I should make sure you weren’t alone with his mother.”
My throat closed.
“When?”
“Two weeks ago.”
I closed my eyes.
Thomas had known danger was near enough to warn someone.
But not near enough to tell me everything.
That hurt.
Then the first police officer knocked on the waiting room door.
The recording remained unplayed.
May you like
The truth waited inside a dead man’s phone.
Read the full story 👉 Claire secured the phone after the confrontation and learned Thomas had warned a fellow veteran not to leave her alone with Victoria.
