Chapter 2 - THE VOICE IN MY PHONE
“Evelyn, we can’t keep doing this.”
The room stopped breathing.
The voice was deep.
Older.
Confident.
Evelyn lunged.
“Give me that phone!”
Her husband, Frank, stepped between us.
That surprised everyone.
Especially her.
“Move,” she snapped.
Frank didn’t.
The recording continued.
Evelyn’s voice came next.
“I told you, after the anniversary dinner, I’ll move the rest of the money.”
Frank’s face drained of color.
“What money?”
Evelyn screamed over the recording.
“It’s fake!”
I almost laughed.
“Fake?”
“Yes! She edited it!”
“You think I hired actors?”
“You’re sick!”
I turned the volume up.
The man spoke again.
“And Frank still doesn’t know about the account?”
“No.”
A pause.
Then Evelyn laughed.
“He barely knows where his glasses are half the time.”
Nobody moved.
Frank looked like someone had punched him in the chest.
Eric whispered, “Mom…”
“Shut up!”
Evelyn spun toward him.
“You don’t know what’s going on.”
“I know what I’m hearing.”
“No, you don’t!”
Daniel finally came toward me.
“Rachel, stop the recording.”
I stared at him.
“Why?”
“This is getting out of hand.”
I pointed to my bleeding lip.
“This got out of hand when your mother dragged me across the floor.”
“I’m not saying what she did was okay.”
“You didn’t say anything at all.”
His mouth tightened.
I let the recording keep playing.
Evelyn’s voice came through again.
“I just need another week. Then we’ll be done with him.”
Frank flinched.
That sentence hit him harder than everything else.
“Done with me?” he whispered.
Evelyn’s confidence cracked.
“Frank, listen to me.”
He backed away.
“No.”
“Please.”
“No. I’ve been listening.”
The man on the recording spoke again.
“You said the money’s almost transferred.”
Frank looked at Evelyn.
“How much?”
She said nothing.
He stepped closer.
“How much money, Evelyn?”
Her chin trembled.
Still nothing.
I stopped the recording.
Evelyn whipped toward me.
“See? She won’t play the rest because it’s fake.”
“Oh, I have the rest.”
“Then play it!”
“I will.”
Daniel grabbed my wrist.
“Rachel. Enough.”
I looked down at his hand.
Then back at him.
“Take your hand off me.”
His grip tightened.
“Don’t make this worse.”
That sentence did something to me.
Because suddenly I understood.
Daniel wasn’t shocked.
He wasn’t confused.
He wasn’t trying to figure out what was happening.
He was trying to stop me.
I pulled my arm free.
“You knew.”
His face went still.
I heard Linda whisper, “What?”
I stared at my husband.
“You knew something was going on.”
“No.”
“You knew.”
“Rachel—”
“That’s why you stood there while she hit me.”
Evelyn stepped between us.
“That has nothing to do with this.”
I turned to her.
“Oh, I think it has everything to do with this.”
Then Frank looked at Daniel.
May you like
And asked a question that changed the entire night.
“Son… what did your mother tell you before Rachel got here?”
