Chapter 9 - The Recording

I heard the recording two days later.

I wish I never had.

But I needed to.

The audio started with footsteps and a cabinet closing.

Then Taylor's voice.

"Mom, where is she?"

Evelyn answered calmly.

"Cooling off."

"What does that mean?"

A pause.

Then Taylor shouted, "Are you insane?"

Footsteps moved fast.

A door opened.

Lily's muffled crying could be heard in the background.

Taylor said, "Get her out."

Evelyn answered, "Not until she tells me where the key is."

My hands tightened around the edge of the table.

On the recording, Taylor said, "She's a child."

"She's manipulating you. Just like Ben."

"Mom, she's freezing."

"Five more minutes."

Then came the part that destroyed whatever sympathy I had left for Taylor.

She said, "If Ben finds out, I'm going to lose custody."

Evelyn replied, "Then don't let him find out."

Silence.

Lily cried again.

And Taylor said nothing.

The recording continued for forty-three minutes.

At one point, Taylor walked back inside the house.

At another, Evelyn told her to clean the kitchen because police notice clutter.

Police.

They were already thinking about how things would look if someone came.

Not how to get Lily out.

How it would look.

When the audio ended, I sat in silence.

Detective Keller slid a box of tissues toward me.

I didn't take one.

"What's happening now?"

"Prosecutors are reviewing charges."

"Against Evelyn?"

"And potentially Taylor."

My first reaction was anger.

My second was grief.

Taylor was Lily's mother.

I had loved her for eleven years.

Part of me wanted there to be some explanation that would keep her from becoming the person on that recording.

There wasn't.

That afternoon, family court issued an emergency order giving me temporary sole custody.

Taylor got supervised visitation.

Evelyn got no contact.

I thought that would make us safe.

Then Lily's school called.

"Mr. Reed," the principal said, "we have a problem."

"What happened?"

"A woman tried to sign Lily out twenty minutes ago."

My heart stopped.

"Who?"

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"She used your sister's name."

I don't have a sister.