Chapter 6
Nathan claimed the recorder was there to protect him.
I laughed.
He hated that.
“Protect you from what?”
“Maya lying.”
My wife stared at him.
He continued.
“She kept threatening to tell you we were meeting.”
“I said I would tell my husband the truth.”
“Same thing.”
“No.”
Maya’s voice sharpened.
“That is not the same thing.”
Nathan looked toward me.
“The recorder was supposed to capture her admitting she was unstable. Upset. Maybe saying she wanted to leave.”
My stomach tightened.
“You were going to record her after locking her without food or water.”
He said nothing.
Maya did.
“They wanted me to call you.”
I turned.
She swallowed.
“The first night.”
My mother’s expression hardened.
Maya continued.
“Evelyn brought my phone. She told me to say I’d gone away because I couldn’t handle the pregnancy.”
I looked at the smashed phone.
That explained it.
“And if you refused?”
“She said I could stay in the shed until I learned.”
Nathan interrupted.
“She smashed the phone herself.”
Maya stared at him.
“After your mother threw it at the wall.”
Nathan looked away.
The duct tape had been used to restrain Maya’s wrists during the first attempt to force the call. The kitchen knife was not a weapon meant for her. It was what Maya later found inside an old garden box and used to cut herself free when they left her alone.
She still could not open the padlock.
But she could reach the recorder.
“I turned it on every time I heard them outside.”
I stared at her.
Three days.
Weak.
Pregnant.
Terrified.
And still thinking.
My mother scoffed.
“She always was sneaky.”
I turned toward her.
“No.”
Evelyn smiled.
“No?”
“She survived.”
My mother’s expression tightened.
Maya looked at Nathan.
“You left the recorder because you thought my fear would become evidence against me.”
Nathan’s jaw hardened.
She continued.
“Instead, your voices became evidence against yourselves.”
Nobody spoke.
Then one of the remaining relatives, Paul, stood.
“I knew about the plan to pressure Caleb.”
I looked at him.
“I did not know about the shed.”
My mother laughed.
“Coward.”
Paul ignored her.
“Nathan said Maya would be sent to the guest cottage.”
I looked at Nathan.
He said nothing.
Paul continued.
“He said once the baby was gone, Caleb would need family around him.”
There it was again.
The child was not the end goal.
My grief was.
May you like
They planned to wound Maya first because they believed breaking her would break me.
And once I leaned on the family for strength, Nathan would be standing closest to the chair.
