Chapter 10 - THE SON HE HAD PREPARED TO SACRIFICE
The bank discovered that Douglas had not transferred money at 2:58.
He had changed the account’s recovery information.
Aaron’s personal email was removed. A new address controlled by Douglas was added. Two-factor authentication was redirected to a prepaid phone found in Dad’s desk.
Douglas had been securing permanent access to Aaron’s profile minutes before sending him into my room.
Investigators then examined older login records.
For almost two years, transfers approved under Aaron’s name had come from the office computer while Aaron’s company phone was connected to truck systems miles away.
Douglas had created Larkspur, diverted payroll taxes, and used Aaron’s identity to authorize the transactions.
But the larger twist was hidden in the company’s insurance files.
Three weeks before the attack, Douglas applied for a financial-crime endorsement on the business policy. The draft application identified Aaron as the employee with primary access to company funds.
Douglas had been preparing to report his own son for theft.
If the missing money was discovered, he could portray Aaron as a violent, unstable operations manager who had attacked the sister investigating him.
The bedroom footage was supposed to support that story.
Dad needed me to say Aaron made the transfers.
He needed Aaron to look frightening enough that no one would trust his denial.
The clues now fit together.
Douglas arrived before Aaron to position the lamp and check the camera.
He laughed instead of intervening because the violence served his plan.
He retreated when I mentioned his promise because my words threatened to expose that he had already confessed privately.
The promise was the one detail he could not explain away.
Aaron learned the truth in his attorney’s office.
He asked to speak with me through a victim advocate.
I declined.
Understanding that our father had selected him as a scapegoat did not make me ready to hear his pain.
The prosecutor offered Aaron a possible reduction in charges if he provided complete testimony about Douglas’s instructions before the attack.
Aaron agreed.
Then he admitted something that made the decision harder.
Dad had not ordered him to drag me by my hair.
He had told Aaron to frighten me into repeating a statement.
The specific brutality belonged to my brother.
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Manipulation explained why he entered the room.
It did not explain every choice he made after he crossed the doorway.
