Chapter 17

Harlan arrived home looking lost and disappointed. When he entered, Carmen slapped him in the face. "Mom?" he exclaimed, puzzled. "How dare you?" She tossed a USB drive at him. "Take a look at this! This is how that bitch hurt our family!" He inserted the USB drive into his laptop and saw a recording and a PDF. "What are these?" "Are you asking me?" She snorted. "Check it out. You'll see." Beatrice tried to calm Carmen down. The noisy music in the recording sounded like it was recorded at a nightclub. Anthea's voice rang out. "...He's an idiot. I've wanted to dump him for a while." Her confession in the recording struck him like lightning. "I… I need money. Okay. He won't know…" Her voice was halting due to the background noise. Harlan had to hold his breath to focus. "I'll hand you the files tomorrow." The recording ended right there. What files? Harlan remained confused. Carmen hinted that he check out the PDF, but he suddenly lost the strength in his hand. Beatrice had