Chapter 2 - THE KEY IN HIS HAND
The key touched the lock.
I heard the tiny metallic click before Brandon turned it.
For one terrible second, I thought the door would open.
Then I remembered the dispatcher was still on the line.
“Ma’am,” she said quietly through my phone, “stay where you are. Officers are being sent to your address now.”
I pressed the phone against my shoulder.
“My husband has a key.”
“Does he have another way into the bathroom?”
“I don’t know.”
The key turned halfway.
Stopped.
Brandon tried again.
Nothing.
I realized with a rush of relief that I had locked the deadbolt.
He had the small key for the handle.
Not the deadbolt.
“Mom,” he said quietly.
Rosalyn answered from the hallway.
“She changed the lock.”
“No,” I heard Brandon say.
“She always uses the deadbolt.”
His voice suddenly sounded irritated.
Not worried.
Not confused.
I looked at the baby monitor.
The recording was still playing.
I pressed the volume higher.
Rosalyn's earlier voice filled the bathroom.
“She always thinks she can threaten us by taking the baby.”
Brandon's recorded voice followed.
“She won't leave. She has nowhere to go.”
My stomach tightened.
They had discussed this.
Not during an argument.
Before.
The dispatcher heard it too.
“Ma’am, keep the device recording if you can.”
“I am.”
Then Brandon knocked again.
“Hannah.”
I didn't answer.
“You're scaring Liam.”
My eyes went to my son.
He was awake now.
Quiet.
His little fingers curled around the edge of my shirt.
I whispered,
“He's safe.”
Brandon heard me.
“You don't know what you're doing.”
I almost laughed.
I knew exactly what I was doing.
I was surviving.
The handle moved.
Then stopped.
A few seconds later, I heard footsteps retreat.
I didn't relax.
I knew better.
Then something scraped across the hallway floor.
A chair.
I looked at the gap beneath the door.
Brandon's shoes appeared again.
He had moved something in front of the bathroom.
Maybe he was trying to make sure I couldn't get out if the door opened.
I whispered to the dispatcher,
“He's blocking the door.”
“Officers are on their way.”
“How long?”
“I can't give you an exact time.”
My eyes closed.
Liam made a tiny sound.
I rocked him gently.
“You're okay.”
Then the baby monitor crackled.
Rosalyn's recorded voice came through.
“She'll eventually get tired.”
Brandon answered.
“She hasn't eaten since breakfast.”
“Good.”
I froze.
Rosalyn continued.
“She'll do anything once she's exhausted.”
The recording ended.
I stared at the monitor.
They had known exactly how tired I was.
They had planned around it.
Then something else occurred to me.
The recording had started before I locked myself inside.
Which meant the monitor had been recording for longer than I realized.
And if it had captured their conversation, there might be more.
I picked up the monitor.
The screen showed the bedroom.
Empty.
The mattress where Rosalyn had tossed Liam was still visible.
A small blanket lay crumpled beside the pillow.
Then I saw something on the nightstand.
A second phone.
I didn't recognize it.
My heart began pounding.
“Dispatcher?”
“Yes?”
“There is another phone in the bedroom.”
“Can you access it?”
“No.”
“Don't leave the bathroom.”
I knew that.
But I also knew the phone might explain why they had been recording everything.
The baby monitor crackled again.
This time, the audio wasn't from the bedroom.
It was from somewhere farther away.
A conversation.
Rosalyn.
And a man I didn't recognize.
“She has to sign before we involve the attorney.”
I stopped breathing.
Brandon answered.
“She won't.”
“She will if she thinks you're taking the baby.”
There was a pause.
Then the unknown man's voice said,
“The house isn't worth fighting over if she leaves voluntarily.”
My heart dropped.
House?
What house?
I had never told them I planned to leave.
I had never threatened to sell anything.
Why were they discussing property?
Then Brandon said something that made my blood turn cold.
“She inherited it from her father. Once she signs, we can refinance.”
I stared at the bathroom wall.
They weren't only trying to control me.
They were trying to obtain something.
I whispered,
“Who is the man?”
The dispatcher said,
“Do you recognize his voice?”
“No.”
Then the recording stopped.
The silence afterward felt enormous.
A moment later, sirens sounded in the distance.
Brandon heard them.
His footsteps moved quickly toward the front door.
Rosalyn shouted,
“Brandon!”
The front door opened.
Then slammed.
The dispatcher said,
“Officers are arriving.”
I held Liam tighter.
For the first time since this began, I let myself breathe.
Then I heard Rosalyn whisper outside the bathroom.
Not to Brandon.
To someone else.
“You promised me she would never find out about the trust.”
I looked at the monitor.
The dispatcher heard it too.
May you like
And suddenly the question wasn't only why they had attacked me.
It was what, exactly, they were trying to make me sign away.
