Chapter 5 - A Voice He Never Recorded

Ethan ripped the batteries out of the clock.

The room went silent.

"I never said that."

Isabella stared at him. "It sounds like you."

"I know. But I never said it."

Beatriz leaned against the doorway. "You send voice messages all the time. Maybe you don't remember."

Ethan looked at her. "Get out."

"This is my bedroom too."

"Get out of hers."

Something in his tone finally moved her.

After she left, Ethan sat on the floor beside Isabella.

"How many messages have you heard?"

"A lot."

"From that clock?"

"Sometimes her phone. Sometimes the speaker downstairs."

"What did they say?"

Isabella picked at a loose thread on her pajama sleeve. "That I was making your life harder. That Mom would be disappointed. That I had to learn respect before you came home."

Ethan closed his eyes.

He had sent Beatriz hundreds of ordinary voice notes while traveling: grocery reminders, flight updates, messages saying, "Tell Isabella I love her," or "Make sure she finishes homework." With basic editing software, someone could cut words apart and build new sentences.

"Did she ever show you a video of me saying those things?"

"No. Just the voice."

He nodded. "Then we can prove it."

The next morning, Ethan called his friend Priya Shah, a digital forensics specialist who worked with his firm's legal team. He sent her the audio from the clock and several original voice messages.

She called back an hour later.

"Ethan, this recording is stitched together. Poorly, actually. Different room tones between words. Somebody cut pieces from at least seven files."

"Can you document that?"

"Yes. Why?"

He looked across the kitchen at Beatriz, who was pretending not to listen.

"Because somebody used my voice to scare my daughter."

Priya went quiet.

"Save everything," she said. "And don't confront whoever did it alone."

Too late for that.

After the call, Isabella tugged Ethan's sleeve.

"Dad?"

"Yeah?"

"There's another place."

"What place?"

She pointed toward the back garden.

"The shed."

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Beatriz dropped her coffee cup.

It shattered on the floor.