Chapter 2: The Recording She Thought Was Gone Forever
That night, I sat at the kitchen table long after the children were asleep.
The recording was 4 minutes and 22 seconds long.
I had listened to it hundreds of times over five years.
But I had never played it for anyone else.
Not yet.
My phone buzzed again.
Sebastian.
**I'm outside your building.
Please.
Just five minutes.**
I walked to the window.
His car was parked across the street.
He wasn't alone.
Olivia sat in the passenger seat, her face turned toward him, her hands moving fast — like someone trying to talk a person out of a terrible mistake.
I watched them for a long moment.
Then I picked up my phone and typed one sentence back to Sebastian.
**Come alone.
Lobby.
Ten minutes.**
He appeared at the door in eight.
His tie was loosened.
His eyes were red.
Hannah, he said quietly.
I didn't know.
I swear to you, I didn't know.
I know you didn't, I said.
He exhaled.
Something in his shoulders collapsed.
That's why I need you to hear something first, I said.
I set my phone on the lobby table between us and pressed play.
The first voice on the recording was his.
The second voice was Olivia's.
And the third sound — the one that made Sebastian go completely still — was a newborn baby crying in the background.
His face changed in a way I had never seen before.
What is that, he whispered.
When was this recorded?
The date is in the file, I said quietly.
The same day your mother told you I lost the babies.
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What Hannah played next made Sebastian's hands shake — and exposed a secret Olivia had hidden for five years.
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The truth is worse than you think.
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