Chapter 2 - The Voice Hidden In The Recording
Claire’s hand tightened around my phone as Marcus stepped toward her.
“Give me that,” he said.
Not loudly.
Not angrily.
That was what terrified me.
Because the Marcus everyone else knew was never the man who screamed.
He was the man who lowered his voice.
The man who smiled while making threats sound like advice.
Claire kept the phone behind her back.
“No.”
One word.
But it changed everything.
Marcus stopped walking.
For a moment, nobody moved.
The backyard was silent except for the sound of water still pouring into the broken garden trench.
I was lying on the ground, covered in mud, shaking so badly I could barely keep my arms around my stomach.
My baby.
That was the only thing I could think about.
Not Marcus.
Not the phone.
Not what would happen next.
My baby.
I forced myself to sit up.
Claire immediately looked at me.
“Are you okay?”
I wanted to say yes.
I wanted to be strong.
But my voice broke.
“I don’t know.”
That was the truth.
I didn’t know if I was okay.
I didn’t know if my baby was okay.
I didn’t know how close I had come to losing everything.
Marcus heard my answer.
And his face changed.
For half a second, I saw something real.
Fear.
Then it disappeared.
He looked at Claire.
“She’s confused.”
Claire stared at him.
“No. She’s scared.”
Marcus shook his head.
“You don’t understand what happened.”
Claire lifted the phone slightly.
“Then explain why your voice is on here.”
Marcus didn’t answer.
That silence told us more than any words could.
The old Marcus would have immediately created a story.
He would have blamed me.
He would have cried.
He would have told Claire that I was unstable.
But now there was evidence.
Now there was something he couldn’t control.
The recording.
Claire pressed the screen.
The audio continued.
Marcus’s voice came through again.
“You packed a bag. You hid your documents. And you think your sister is going to help you disappear with my child.”
Then my own voice.
Quiet.
Terrified.
“I’m leaving, Marcus.”
A pause.
Then his voice.
“You’re not leaving.”
The backyard suddenly felt colder.
Claire looked at me.
I closed my eyes.
Because I remembered.
I remembered every second.
Every word.
Every moment where I knew something was wrong but convinced myself it wasn’t bad enough to leave.
The recording continued.
“You don’t get to decide when this family ends.”
“I’m not ending anything.”
“You’re taking my child away.”
“It’s my baby too.”
Then came the sound I hated most.
A crash.
The sound of something breaking.
Claire looked at Marcus.
“What was that?”
Marcus didn’t answer.
The recording continued.
His voice became darker.
“You should have listened.”
Then my scream.
The sound of fear.
The sound of someone realizing they were trapped.
Claire’s expression changed.
She didn’t look confused anymore.
She looked certain.
Marcus took another step.
“Stop playing that.”
Claire shook her head.
“No.”
“You have no idea what you’re involved in.”
That sentence made my stomach twist.
Because it wasn’t a denial.
It was a warning.
Claire noticed too.
“What does that mean?”
Marcus looked at her.
Then at me.
And for the first time, I saw him realize something.
He had lost control of the situation.
The neighbor.
The phone.
The recording.
Everything.
He turned away suddenly and walked toward the house.
My entire body went tense.
“Where is he going?”
Claire grabbed my arm carefully.
“I don’t know.”
But I knew.
I knew Marcus.
When he lost control, he didn’t apologize.
He cleaned up.
He removed evidence.
He changed the story.
I tried standing.
My legs collapsed.
Claire caught me.
“Don’t move.”
“I need to get inside.”
“No.”
“My documents.”
Her eyes met mine.
And she understood.
The bag.
The one I packed before Marcus came home.
The one that started everything.
Claire looked toward the house.
“Where is it?”
“Bedroom closet.”
Marcus was already inside.
Claire immediately called emergency services.
Her voice was calm.
Strangely calm.
The kind of calm people have when they are forcing themselves not to panic.
“My neighbor has been assaulted by her husband,” she said. “She’s pregnant. She was trapped underground in the backyard. He attacked her with a wooden weapon.”
Marcus appeared at the back door.
His expression was different now.
Controlled.
Almost normal.
That scared me more.
The police were coming.
He knew it.
But he wasn’t running.
Why?
Because Marcus always believed he was smarter than everyone else.
He looked at Claire’s phone.
Then at me.
Then he smiled.
A small smile.
The kind nobody else would notice.
But I did.
I had seen that smile before.
The night he broke my old phone.
The night he apologized afterward.
The night he told me nobody would believe me because I had “no proof.”
He walked slowly toward us.
“Can we please stop making this worse?”
Claire stared at him.
“Worse?”
Marcus sighed.
“I made a mistake.”
I almost laughed.
A mistake.
That was what he called it.
Not violence.
Not abuse.
Not trying to hurt me and my unborn child.
A mistake.
“I was angry,” he continued.
Claire didn’t lower the phone.
“You buried your pregnant wife in a hole.”
Marcus looked at her.
“No.”
He pointed at me.
“She fell.”
The confidence returned.
That was when I realized something.
He wasn’t afraid of the police.
He was afraid of one thing.
People knowing who he really was.
And he was already preparing his next lie.
A few minutes later, sirens could be heard in the distance.
Marcus looked toward the road.
Then back at me.
His eyes narrowed.
“You should have never involved other people.”
The words were quiet.
Only I heard them.
But they were enough.
Because they weren’t regret.
They were a promise.
The police arrived quickly.
Two officers entered through the open gate.
Claire immediately walked toward them.
She explained everything.
The trench.
The stick.
The recording.
The phone.
Marcus stood there silently.
Almost peacefully.
When one officer approached him, Marcus raised his hands.
“I know how this looks.”
That sentence made my blood run cold.
Because I knew what came next.
“I love my wife.”
The officer looked at him.
“I’m sure you do.”
Marcus nodded.
“She’s been under a lot of stress because of the pregnancy.”
There it was.
The lie.
The one he had prepared.
“She became emotional after we argued.”
Claire stepped forward.
“That is not what happened.”
Marcus looked at her sadly.
Like she was the person causing trouble.
“I’m sorry you got dragged into this.”
Claire’s face hardened.
“I heard the recording.”
The officer looked at the phone.
“Play it.”
Claire did.
Everyone listened.
Nobody spoke.
When Marcus’s voice filled the backyard, even the officers’ expressions changed.
But then something unexpected happened.
Marcus smiled.
Just slightly.
And I knew.
He had something.
Something he thought would save him.
After listening, the officer asked:
“Is there anything else we should know?”
Marcus looked directly at me.
Then he said:
“Yes.”
My heart stopped.
Because his voice wasn’t angry.
It was confident.
“There is something my wife hasn’t told you.”
Claire looked at me.
I felt the blood drain from my face.
The officer turned toward me.
“What is he talking about?”
I opened my mouth.
May you like
But before I could answer, Marcus reached into his pocket.
And pulled out a small envelope with my name written across the front.
