Chapter 2 - THE DARKNESS
Jason cursed and grabbed for me in the dark.
I rolled sideways.
His hand caught only the edge of my shirt.
Emergency light from the dryer display cast the basement in a weak blue glow. Tyler’s phone screen illuminated his face. Chris stood frozen near the stairs.
Someone pounded on the front door upstairs.
Not police sirens.
Not yet.
Three measured knocks.
Jason whispered, “Who did you call?”
I stayed silent.
Tyler stepped backward.
“You said nobody knew we were here.”
“They don’t.”
Another knock shook the house.
A man’s voice called from upstairs.
“Emily?”
I recognized my older brother, Daniel.
Jason had told me Daniel moved to Canada and wanted no contact. He had shown me messages saying I embarrassed the family.
Those messages had been fake.
Daniel struck the door again.
“Emily, answer me!”
Jason pointed the remote toward my collar.
“If you make a sound—”
I screamed.
Not because he shocked me.
Because I finally could.
“Basement!”
Jason pressed the button.
Nothing happened.
The receiver’s light blinked red.
Ortiz’s team had jammed its frequency.
Jason stared at the useless remote.
Upstairs, wood splintered.
Chris bolted toward the basement stairs.
Jason tackled him from behind.
Tyler continued filming by instinct, the camera shaking as the men fought.
I crawled toward the laundry sink.
A pair of heavy scissors rested beside the detergent bottles.
Jason saw me.
He released Chris and rushed forward.
Before he reached me, the basement door burst open.
Daniel came down first, followed by Detective Ortiz and two officers.
Weapons raised.
Commands filled the room.
Jason lifted both hands.
His expression changed instantly.
“Thank God,” he said. “She’s having an episode.”
Ortiz looked at the collar.
Then at Tyler’s active camera.
Then at the remote in Jason’s hand.
“On the ground.”
Jason smiled weakly.
“You don’t understand.”
“I understand enough.”
The officers restrained him, Tyler, and Chris.
Nurse Priya entered after the scene was secured. She knelt beside me and checked my baby’s heartbeat before touching the collar.
“You did it,” she whispered.
“No.”
My voice shook.
“We did.”
Then Jason laughed from the floor.
All of us looked at him.
“You think this is evidence?”
Ortiz asked, “What do you think it is?”
“A performance.”
His eyes moved toward Tyler.
“He filmed what Emily paid us to stage.”
Tyler stared at him.
“What?”
Jason continued calmly.
“She wanted sympathy for a custody case.”
I was not married to Jason.
There was no custody case yet.
But he had already prepared a lie involving the unborn baby.
Ortiz removed the recorder from behind my teeth and sealed it.
Jason’s confidence faded when he saw the evidence bag.
Priya unlocked the shock collar.
Beneath it were scars in different stages of healing.
Daniel covered his mouth.
He had not known.
None of them knew the worst part.
The collar was not the first device Jason used on me.
Behind the laundry sink, police found a locked metal cabinet.
Inside were medical restraints, sedatives, false consent forms, and ultrasound photographs.
One showed my current daughter.
Another showed a pregnancy from three years earlier.
Twins.
May you like
I remembered no twins.
Jason looked away.
