Chapter 6
“I was in a meeting. The number was unknown. He left a voicemail.”
“Play it.”
“Claire—”
“Play it.”
Roman took out his phone.
The recording lasted twenty-eight seconds.
The first thing I heard was water.
Then Owen breathing.
Fast.
“Mr. Roman?”
My son’s voice.
Tiny.
Alive.
I put both hands over my mouth.
“Daddy brought the lady from the silver car. They’re yelling. Daddy said if Mom finds out, she’ll take the house and me. The lady said I ruin everything.”
A noise.
Owen whispered.
“I’m hiding by the dock.”
Then Vanessa’s voice, distant.
Where is he?
Ethan answered.
I told you I’ll handle it.
The recording ended.
I folded over.
A sound tore out of me that I did not recognize.
Roman moved toward me, then stopped before touching me.
“May I?”
I nodded.
He sat beside me.
I cried against the chest of a man people called a criminal because the man I had called my husband had become something worse.
We received the recovered watch audio the next afternoon.
This recording was longer.
Owen had activated the recorder accidentally or deliberately sometime after calling Roman.
The first minute contained only wind.
Then Ethan.
“You cannot tell your mother.”
Owen said, “I don’t like Vanessa.”
“She’s my friend.”
“You kissed her.”
Silence.
Then Owen began crying.
“I’m telling Mom.”
Vanessa said, “See? This is exactly what I meant.”
“Stop,” Ethan snapped.
“If Claire knows, she destroys you. She takes the house. Your partnership. Everything. She’ll use him against you.”
Owen shouted, “I want Mommy!”
Footsteps.
A splash.
Then screaming.
Mine came later.
At first I could not understand what I heard.
Owen was in the water.
Ethan was on the dock.
“Daddy!”
My son screamed the word four times.
On the fifth, his voice was weaker.
Vanessa said, “Ethan, do something.”
And Ethan answered:
“If I pull him out, he tells her.”
There are moments when a human life separates into before and after.
That sentence was mine.
The recording continued.
Vanessa began panicking.
“This isn’t what I meant.”
Ethan said nothing.
Owen called for me once.
Then there was only water.
I do not remember the next several hours.
I remember Roman kneeling in front of me.
I remember throwing a glass.
I remember screaming at him because he was there and Ethan was not.
I remember telling him I hated him for bringing me the truth.
He took every word.
When I finally stopped, he said, “I know.”
“No, you don’t.”
“No.”
His eyes were wet.
“I don’t.”
That answer kept me from hating him.
He did not pretend to understand a wound he had never suffered.
Police arrested Ethan that evening.
May you like
Vanessa disappeared.
And two mornings later, I found out I was pregnant.
