Page 78 of Betraying Family Vows

But the moment I sit beside her and pick up that phone, I feel it, a flicker of something dangerously close to doubt.

Not because I'm afraid of what's on it.

Because I'm afraid there will be nothing.

That all the blood we've spilled to get here will have been for nothing.

I push it aside. There's no room for it here. Not now.

I reach over and grab my laptop and pull it toward me. I take the connected cable and slide it into the phone and wait, watching the loading bar crawl across the screen.

Athena leans forward, her posture rigid.

When the phone finally syncs, the directories populate in neat, sterile rows:

Voice Memos (2)

Call Logs (13)

Call Recordings (3)

Files (41)

Text Messages (6)

Contacts (1)

"Let's be smart about this," I say. "We need to be thorough."

My hand moves over the trackpad, fingers steady even though everything in me wants to start tearing through all of this like an animal.

I pull up the call history first. Numbers, dates, durations. Most calls last less than two minutes.

Athena leans in closer, her hair brushing against my arm. Her scent fills my nose, and it surprisingly calms me a bit.

"There," she points. "To S. He called it every Thursday at exactly 9 PM. For months."

I nod, seeing the calls started months before my dad's death.

"Check the text messages," she suggests, her breath warm against my shoulder. "Maybe he texted him, too."

There are only six texts, but none are to S. They're to other numbers, and each only has a few exchanges, most consisting of single words or brief codes.

"They're maybe using a cipher," I say.

I switch to the voice memo app.

"Hopefully this will help," I say and press the first one.

"...don't have a choice anymore. I made the payment, we should be ok."

Athena's fingers dig into my forearm. "Play the other."

"Six million was the agreed amount. Now it's more. I'll need personal funds to cover it."

"Someone was extorting him," Athena says.

I don't say anything. I click over to the call recordings, hoping to get more.