Chapter 2: Eleven Recordings
My hands were shaking as I pressed play.
The first recording was from three weeks ago.
Lily was sitting at the kitchen table, asking for a glass of water.
Vanessa's voice came through clearly.
"You don't ask me for anything.
You're not my child."
The second one was worse.
Lily was crying in the hallway, saying she was hungry.
Vanessa told her the food was for Mason.
Then she said if Lily told her father, nobody would believe a little girl who made things up.
I looked at Vanessa across the table.
She didn't deny it.
She just said, "Children exaggerate."
Mason stood up from his chair.
He was nine years old, and he looked his mother dead in the eye.
"There are eleven more."
Vanessa's face went pale.
I asked Mason how long he had been saving them.
He said since the night Lily stopped eating dinner and told him her stomach hurt from being scared.
I picked Lily up and held her.
She buried her face in my shoulder and didn't make a sound.
That's when Vanessa said the one thing that made everything worse.
"You were never supposed to come home today."
---
What did Vanessa mean by that?
May you like
The full truth — and what happened next — is darker than anyone expected.
Read the complete story at the link below.
