Chapter 2 - The RecordingThe refrigerator hummed in the silence.
I could hear my own heartbeat.
“Play it,” I said.
Melissa shook her head.
“Daniel, she's confused.”
Mom's fingers trembled as she pressed the button.
Static.
Then Melissa's voice.
“You're going to sign it.”
Mom's recorded voice answered.
“I already told you no.”
“You're living in my house.”
“It's Daniel's house too.”
Melissa laughed.
“Daniel believes me. That makes it my house.”
My stomach turned.
The recording continued.
“You don't need eighty thousand dollars sitting around.”
“It's for Daniel.”
“Then give it to Daniel.”
A chair scraped across the floor.
Mom cried out.
“Stop squeezing my arm.”
“You're going to sign the transfer.”
“No.”
“You want Daniel to think you're losing your mind?”
Silence.
Then Melissa's voice.
“I can make that happen.”
The recording stopped.
I looked at my wife.
She was crying now.
But I couldn't feel sympathy.
Not yet.
“What money?”
Melissa shook her head.
“This is manipulated.”
“Then why are you afraid of it?”
She said nothing.
Mom slowly rolled up her sleeve.
More bruises.
Some yellow.
Some purple.
Some almost faded.
I felt something inside me break.
“How long?”
Mom looked down.
“Months.”
I closed my eyes.
For months, I had believed Melissa.
I had believed my mother was becoming forgetful.
Difficult.
Confused.
I remembered every time Melissa had called me at work.
Mom left the stove on.
Mom wandered outside.
Mom accused her of stealing.
I had believed my wife.
Now every memory felt poisoned.
Mom whispered:
“She hid my phone.”
Melissa shouted, “That's not true!”
“She told Daniel I was losing my mind.”
“Because you were!”
“She dragged me out of his office.”
Melissa's face changed.
May you like
I noticed.
And for the first time, I wondered what exactly she had been afraid I would find.
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