My husband handed me a little white pill every night, kissed my forehead, and waited for me to fall unconscious.

Daniel called me nineteen times the next day.

The first few voicemails were tearful.

Claire, please. I love you. This is a misunderstanding. Rachel did this. I didn't know what was in those pills. Come home and let's talk.

By the afternoon, his voice had changed.

You're making a huge mistake. You know what people will say when they hear about your episodes? You know what a jury will think?

By evening, he barely sounded like himself.

You think that old man can protect you? You think anyone can?

Harold had told me to save every single one. I did.

On the third day, someone knocked on Megan's door.

Megan looked through the peephole and went pale.

"It's Rachel."

Every instinct told me not to open it. But something in me needed to look her in the face.

I took out my phone and pressed record. Then I nodded.

Megan opened the door with the chain still on.

Rachel looked terrible. Her makeup was smeared, and her hair was pulled back carelessly. She looked nothing like the woman who had stood over my bed whispering about clinics.

"Claire," she said. "Please. Five minutes."

"Say what you came to say."

She glanced up and down the hallway. "The police came to my work. They took my computer. I'm going to lose everything."

"You helped drug me."

"It was Daniel's idea," she said quickly. "All of it. He said you'd never even notice. He said the house was half his anyway because you're married. I believed him. I was scared. You don't know what those lenders are like, Claire. They came to my apartment. They knew where my kids go to school."

For a moment, I almost felt sorry for her.

Almost.

"You stood in my bedroom," I said, "and talked about putting me in a clinic so I wouldn't figure it out."

Rachel's eyes filled with tears. "I know. I know. That's why I'm here. I want to make a deal. I'll tell the police everything. But you need to know something first. Something he never told you."

"What?"

She swallowed hard.

"Six months ago, Daniel increased the life insurance policy on you. He forged your signature on that too. Half a million dollars."

The hallway seemed to tilt beneath my feet.

"The clinic was the first plan," Rachel whispered. "Take the house. Keep you sedated and locked away. But he said if you ever started fighting back, if you ever became a problem…"

She didn't finish.

She didn't have to.

"Why are you telling me this?" I asked.

"Because I have a daughter," Rachel said, her voice breaking. "And I keep thinking about someone doing this to her."

She turned and walked away down the hallway.

I stood frozen until Megan gently closed the door.

Then I looked down at my phone.

Still recording.