Chapter 2 - The Recording in the Garage
I pressed play.
Taylor lunged toward me.
I stepped away and held the phone above my shoulder.
Her voice came through the speaker.
“Stop crying. Your father isn’t coming home.”
Lily whimpered on the recording.
Then another woman spoke.
Older.
Calm.
Evelyn.
My mother.
“You’ve already given her too much. If she wakes again, increase the dose.”
I stopped breathing.
Taylor whispered, “It isn’t what it sounds like.”
“It sounds like you drugged my daughter.”
“She was sick.”
“Why was she inside a freezer?”
Lily pulled at my coat.
“Daddy, there was another girl.”
Taylor’s eyes snapped toward her.
“Lily, you’re confused.”
“I saw her shoe.”
I looked at the red shoe inside the freezer.
Small.
Dirty.
A faded silver star on the side.
Taylor took another step back.
I called 911.
She slapped the phone from my hand.
“You’re going to destroy this family.”
“You put my child in a box.”
“She wasn’t supposed to stay there.”
The words came out before she could stop them.
A police dispatcher answered through the cracked phone on the floor.
I shouted our address.
Taylor ran into the house.
I wrapped Lily in my winter coat and followed far enough to lock the connecting door.
Then Evelyn’s car appeared at the end of the driveway.
She parked without turning off the headlights.
When she entered the garage, she looked at Lily, the open freezer, and the old phone.
Her expression barely changed.
“You came home early,” she said.
“Why is your voice on this recording?”
Evelyn looked at Taylor through the glass door.
Then she looked back at me.
“Because somebody had to protect you from the truth.”
Police sirens grew louder outside.
Lily pressed her face against my chest.
May you like
Then she whispered something that made Evelyn finally lose her calm.
“Grandma knows where the other girl is.”
