Chapter 10 - The Confession of a Sixteen-Year-OldGabriel had imagined many conversations with Wyatt.
He had imagined demanding an explanation for the bruises on Lucas's arms. He had imagined asking why a boy who had been welcomed into their home had helped turn that home into a place of fear.
He had never imagined that Wyatt would contact him first.
Detective Ruiz advised Gabriel not to arrange a meeting privately. After verifying the communication as far as possible, investigators coordinated a safe location where Wyatt could speak without Candice or Marissa present.
Wyatt arrived with a backpack and a face that looked strangely young beneath the anger he usually wore.
He sat across from Gabriel and refused to make eye contact.
“Where's my mother?” he asked.
“I don't know.”
“Is she in trouble?”
“That's something you need to discuss with the authorities. I'm here because you said you knew what happened to Lucas.”
Wyatt's mouth tightened.
“He told you everything, didn't he?”
“He told me some of it.”
“Then you already know I'm the bad guy.”
Gabriel looked at him.
“You hit my son. You helped frighten him. You don't get to erase that by calling yourself the bad guy.”
Wyatt flinched.
For a moment, Gabriel thought the boy would leave.
Instead, Wyatt reached into his backpack and removed an old phone with a cracked screen.
“I recorded them,” he said.
“Who?”
“My mom. Aunt Darlene. Candice.”
“Why?”
“Because I thought if I had proof, they'd stop blaming everything on me.”
Gabriel remained still.
Wyatt explained that he had started recording conversations several months earlier. At first, he wanted evidence that his mother was spending money meant for him. Then he overheard Candice and Darlene discussing Lucas's future.
He had begun recording more often.
“Candice said Lucas was going to a place where he couldn't get anyone to believe him,” Wyatt said. “She said once he was gone, the house would be peaceful again.”
“Why did you hurt him?”
Wyatt stared at his shoes.
“Because they told me to.”
“That isn't an answer.”
“I know.”
He rubbed his palms together.
“Candice said Lucas was trying to make everyone hate me. She told me he wanted to get me thrown out. My mom said I'd lose my room, my school, everything if I didn't help her.”
“So you decided to hurt him first?”
Wyatt looked up, and the resentment in his face was unmistakable.
“He always got everything. People worried about him because his mom died. Dad left me, and everybody acted like I should just get over it. Candice said she understood me. She said Lucas needed to learn he couldn't control everything just because people felt sorry for him.”
Gabriel felt a surge of anger, but beneath it was a quieter understanding.
Wyatt had been manipulated.
He had also chosen to participate.
Both things could be true.
“What else did Candice tell you?”
Wyatt opened the old phone.
He played a recording from two weeks earlier.
Candice's voice filled the room.
“When Gabriel leaves on Monday, the transfer will happen at the yard. We cannot afford another delay.”
Darlene answered.
“And the boy?”
“He'll be at Haven Ridge. Marissa has the intake paperwork.”
“What if Gabriel changes his mind?”
Candice was silent for a moment.
“Then we make sure he has no reason to come home.”
The recording ended.
Gabriel stared at Wyatt.
“What does that mean?”
“I don't know exactly,” Wyatt said. “But they talked about his route. They said if he refused to cooperate, they'd make it look like he was driving recklessly.”
Gabriel's stomach tightened.
“Did you hear them talk about killing me?”
Wyatt shook his head quickly.
“Not like that. I didn't hear anyone say they were going to kill you. I heard them talking about an accident investigation and what happens when a truck disappears off a road.”
He swallowed.
“Candice said everyone would believe it was work stress. She said nobody would question a dead driver who had been having family problems.”
Gabriel felt the room grow cold.
“Did you believe her?”
“I didn't know what to believe.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
Wyatt's eyes filled.
“Because I was scared. And because I wanted them to keep choosing me.”
The honesty was ugly, but it was the first thing Wyatt had said that sounded completely true.
He handed the phone to the investigator present.
There were several recordings. Some captured arguments between Candice and Darlene about money. Others showed Marissa discussing the residential placement agreement. One recording included a man whose voice Gabriel did not recognize.
The man was telling Candice that the paperwork was ready, but the schedule had to remain unchanged.
Candice answered that it would.
Wyatt said he had also filmed Lucas washing clothes by hand.
Gabriel's expression hardened.
“Why?”
“Candice told me to record him if he complained. She said it would prove he was unstable.”
“Did you record him being hit?”
Wyatt closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
For several seconds, Gabriel couldn't speak.
“Show me.”
Wyatt played the clip.
It showed Lucas standing in the kitchen while Candice spoke off-camera. The boy was apologizing for taking a carton of milk. Then Wyatt stepped into the frame and shoved him against a counter.
Lucas covered his face.
Candice's voice instructed Wyatt to teach him to stop stealing.
The clip ended.
Gabriel pushed the phone away.
“Did you send them this?”
“No. Candice saved it.”
“Where?”
Wyatt told investigators that Candice had copied the recordings to a laptop stored in her bedroom. She used a password-protected folder and sometimes transferred files to a separate memory card.
The same compartment behind the wardrobe had contained several memory cards.
Investigators were already examining them.
Wyatt looked at Gabriel.
“I can't undo what I did.”
“No,” Gabriel said. “You can't.”
The boy nodded, as though he had expected nothing else.
“But you can stop helping them,” Gabriel continued. “You can tell the truth. You can give the evidence to people who can investigate it. And you can accept the consequences of what you did to Lucas.”
Wyatt wiped his face.
“Will he ever forgive me?”
“That's his decision. You don't get to demand forgiveness because you're finally sorry.”
Wyatt nodded again.
Before the interview ended, he gave investigators one more piece of information.
On Monday morning, Candice planned to send Marissa to Haven Ridge with the placement documents. At the same time, Gabriel's delivery schedule would direct him to the isolated transfer yard.
Darlene would remain at the family house.
Candice would be somewhere else, creating an alibi.
Their plan depended on three things happening close together.
Lucas had to be admitted to Haven Ridge.
Gabriel had to be removed from the family's ordinary life.
And the documents needed to show that everything had happened with his consent.
“There's something else,” Wyatt said.
Gabriel waited.
“My aunt has another folder. She keeps it at the old office, not at your house.”
“What kind of folder?”
“It's got photographs of other kids. Some of them are from Haven Ridge. Candice said those kids were part of the cases that worked.”
Gabriel felt his anger return.
“How many?”
“I don't know. Maybe twenty.”
Wyatt looked directly at him for the first time.
“But there's one photo I remember.”
“Whose?”
“Denise Palmer's daughter.”
He took a breath.
“She was still a kid when I saw it. Candice called her the first one who got away.”
May you like
Then Wyatt added the detail that changed everything.
“I think she's still alive.”
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