Chapter 3: What the Recording Said
Zoe sat on the edge of Lily's bed.
Lily had fallen asleep against my shoulder, her breathing finally even.
I looked at the phone in my hand.
The file name read: *Mark — November 3rd.*
Thanksgiving was the twenty-eighth.
"This was recorded three weeks ago," I said quietly.
Zoe nodded.
She was picking at the hem of her sleeve.
"I didn't mean to find it.
Mom left her phone on the kitchen counter and it buzzed.
I thought it was a text.
When I picked it up the recording app was open.
I saw Dad's — I saw Uncle Mark's name and I just…" She stopped.
"I pressed play before I knew what I was doing."
I pressed play now.
The first voice was Megan's.
Clear.
Calm.
Like she was reading from a list.
*"I'm telling you, Mark, it's time.
You've been putting this off for two years and it's not fair to the family."*
Then Mark's voice.
Lower.
The voice he uses when he's cornered.
*"Megan, I can't just —"*
*"Yes you can.
You sign the papers.
We handle the rest.
Chloe doesn't need to know anything until it's done."*
A pause.
I heard the sound of a chair.
Someone setting down a glass.
*"And Lily?"* Mark said.
*"Lily is seven.
She'll adjust.
Children always do."*
The recording ran another forty seconds.
Neither of them spoke again.
Then it ended.
I set the phone on the nightstand.
Lily shifted against me, murmured something in her sleep, and was still.
"Zoe." My voice came out steady.
I didn't understand how.
"What papers?"
Zoe's eyes filled.
"I don't know exactly.
But Mom has been meeting with someone.
A man I don't recognize.
He came to the house twice last month while Dad was traveling.
She told me he was a contractor."
"A contractor."
"He was carrying a folder, Aunt Chloe.
Not a blueprint.
A folder."
I thought about Mark at the dinner table an hour ago.
*Let's not make a scene.* I thought about the way he had looked at his mother before he looked at his plate.
Not at Lily.
Not at me.
At his mother.
Checking.
"Has your father heard this recording?"
"I don't know.
I don't think so." She wiped her face with the back of her hand.
"Mom doesn't know I have it.
I airdropped it to myself the same day.
She never noticed."
I lifted Lily carefully and laid her against the pillow.
I pulled the blanket up to her chin.
Then I stood, picked up the phone, and sent the recording to my own number.
"Zoe." I turned to face her.
"I need you to go back downstairs.
Act normal.
Can you do that?"
She looked terrified.
"What are you going to do?"
"I'm going to find out what papers she's talking about." I kept my voice low.
"And I need to do it before this night is over."
Zoe stood up.
She was seventeen and she looked twelve right now, standing in the doorway of her cousin's bedroom, holding herself together with both hands.
"Aunt Chloe," she said.
"I'm scared of what you're going to find."
I looked at her.
"So am I."
She went downstairs.
I stood alone in Lily's room for exactly thirty seconds.
Then I walked down the hall toward the home office — and tried the handle.
May you like
It was locked.
Mark had never locked that door before in eleven years.
