Chapter 7 - Forty-Seven Seconds
The recording began with dishes clattering.
Then Margaret’s voice.
“Give him to me.”
Lena answered from farther away.
“He’s fine.
He just wants to be held.”
“You’re making him needy.”
“He’s one.”
A chair scraped.
Then crying.
Not loud at first.
A frightened, breathless little sound.
“I said give him here.”
“No.”
The word was Lena’s.
Flat.
Clear.
Margaret lowered her voice.
“You think he’ll choose you over me?
I’ve been here eleven years.
You’re a girl with no references worth calling.”
“I’m not handing him to you.”
A pause.
Then Margaret said something I would remember for the rest of my life.
“His father likes quiet.
You’d better learn how this house stays quiet.”
The recording ended.
Nobody spoke.
I had demanded silence during calls.
Asked for nursery updates by email.
Praised Margaret because the house never seemed chaotic.
She had taken ordinary selfishness and built a hiding place inside it.
Ruiz closed the file.
“This matters,” she told Lena.
“Thank you for preserving it.”
A doctor came in shortly afterward.
The boys were stable.
They would remain under observation while the team completed its assessment.
Stable wasn’t the same as untouched.
But it was something I could breathe around.
That evening, I sat beside Noah’s crib while Lena rocked Nico nearby.
“Do they always do that?” I asked.
“What?”
“Check the door.”
Both boys looked up whenever footsteps passed.
Lena’s eyes filled.
“Lately.”
I reached into the crib.
Noah wrapped his hand around my thumb.
“I’ll stay,” I whispered.
He couldn’t understand the promise.
That didn’t make it less necessary.
Near midnight, Ruiz returned.
Margaret was being held while the investigation continued.
The officers were documenting the medicine, the lock, the room, and the records.
“There’s one more issue,” Ruiz said.
“Her phone was active after your guards detained her.”
“She called someone?”
“She sent a message before an officer secured it.”
“What did it say?”
Ruiz paused.
“Get the red one out of my office.”
I looked at Lena.
May you like
The notebook hadn’t vanished by itself.
Someone else had gone into my house.
