Leo said in one recording, “We need someone who understands contracts. I don’t want us to miss anything.”
Sam replied, “I’m ahead of you. I found someone. But it’s not cheap.”
Leo didn’t hesitate.
“Then we’ll figure it out.”
That’s when everything clicked.
The missing money.
It wasn’t careless—it was deliberate.
Mark paused the audio.
The room fell quiet.
I looked at them.
“Why didn’t you just come to me?” I asked.
Sam glanced at Leo, then back at me.
“Because you would’ve said no.”
“You don’t know that.”
Leo leaned forward slightly.
“Yeah, we do.”
That hurt.
“Every time something comes up—for you—you brush it off,” Leo said. “You’d say it didn’t matter anymore.”
Sam added quietly, “You always choose us.”
It wasn’t said with accusation.
“And that’s not a bad thing,” Leo added quickly. “But it also means… you’ve stopped choosing yourself. So, we accessed your bank account; your details aren’t really a secret since they’re right there in the notebook by your bedside table.”
I had no response.
Because they weren’t wrong.
Sam reached for the laptop.
“There’s one more,” he said. “This is the last one.”
He pressed play.
Leo’s voice came through—this time unsteady.
“She gave up everything without asking for anything back.”
A pause.
