Chapter 4 - The Message In The Dark
I pretended not to see. I kissed her goodnight, told her to get some rest, and walked upstairs to our bedroom—then I waited.
Ten minutes later, I heard her footsteps on the stairs. She didn’t come to bed. Instead, she went back down to the kitchen.
I crept to the railing and listened.
Her voice was low, urgent, terrified.
“You can’t do this… I gave you everything I have… Please, he doesn’t know… If he finds out, he’ll take her away from me too… Just give me more time…”
A pause.
“I know. I know what I agreed to. But I can’t— not like this. Not hurting her.”
Another pause.
“Fine. But if anything happens to her, I swear I’ll—”
Her voice broke off. Then silence.
I waited until I heard her footsteps retreat to the guest room before I went down. The kitchen was dark, the phone lying face-up on the table.
Claire had left it unlocked.
I told myself I shouldn’t look. That trust was everything. That I was crossing a line I might never be able to step back over.
But I thought of Emily’s face, wet and scared.
I picked up the phone.
The messages were from an unknown number.
[4:02 PM]: Be there in 15. Do exactly as we discussed.
[4:08 PM]: Keep her in the water. Make it look real.
[4:15 PM]: He’s pulling up. Don’t mess this up.
[4:22 PM]: You hesitated. That was not part of the deal.
[9:47 PM]: Final warning. Bring the money and the girl tomorrow night. Or I tell him the truth about who she really is.
The world tilted beneath my feet.
Make it look real.
She hadn’t been trying to protect Emily. She had been part of it. All of it.
And the last line—who she really is.
I dropped the phone onto the table. It clattered loudly in the quiet room.
Claire appeared in the doorway, her hair disheveled, her eyes wide. She saw the phone. She saw my face.
All the fight went out of her. She sank into the chair, her hands covering her face.
“How much did you read?”
“All of it.” My voice sounded like it belonged to someone else. “What is she, Claire? Who is Emily?”
May you like
Claire looked up, tears streaming down her face, and spoke the words that shattered every memory I thought we’d built.
“Emily isn’t just our daughter, Daniel.”
