Chapter 7 - The Nursery Microphone
Marcus smashed the monitor against the wall.
It shattered.
Elena flinched.
He immediately regretted it.
“Sorry.”
She stared at the broken plastic.
“Don’t be.”
Dana and Caleb arrived seconds later.
The baby monitor lay in pieces.
Caleb crouched beside it.
“This isn’t the original unit.”
Elena frowned.
“What do you mean?”
“The serial number.”
He showed Marcus.
“The system installed last month ended in 8842.”
This one ended in 9130.
Someone had replaced it.
Dana put on gloves.
“Recently?”
“Very.”
They searched the nursery again.
This time they removed everything.
Furniture.
Curtains.
Books.
Stuffed animals.
Caleb found the first microphone inside a wooden rabbit.
The second beneath the crib.
The third inside the ceiling vent.
Dana found a miniature camera in a smoke detector.
Elena stood in the doorway watching strangers dismantle the room meant for her daughter.
She felt violated in a way she could not explain.
Every private conversation might have been recorded.
Every fear.
Every fight with Marcus.
Every whispered sentence to her unborn baby.
Victoria had been listening.
Marcus approached Elena.
“You should rest.”
“No.”
“Elena.”
“If I close my eyes, I hear her.”
He reached for her hand.
She moved away.
Not because she blamed him.
Because touching anyone suddenly made her skin crawl.
Dana noticed.
“Elena.”
“Yes?”
“Has Victoria ever threatened you directly?”
“Not in a way anyone else would call a threat.”
“Explain.”
“She says things that sound kind.”
“Example?”
Elena thought.
“When I got pregnant, she told me she would make sure the baby belonged to this family no matter what happened to me.”
Dana wrote it down.
“At the time?”
“I thought she meant if I died during childbirth.”
“And now?”
Elena looked toward the hidden camera.
“Now I think she was making a promise.”
Caleb emerged from the passage holding a black electronic box.
“Found the transmitter.”
He connected it to his laptop.
“There’s local storage.”
“Audio?”
Marcus asked.
“Hundreds of hours.”
Elena almost stopped him.
Then she remembered the guardianship petition.
They needed proof.
“Play the nights Victoria entered our room.”
Caleb filtered the recordings.
The first file was dated June 3.
2:17 a.m.
Elena’s breathing could be heard.
Then the wall opened.
Victoria’s footsteps.
Her whisper.
“You feel unsafe here.”
June 8.
“You don’t trust Marcus.”
June 15.
“The baby is afraid of you.”
June 19.
“You saw me hurt you.”
June 22.
“You broke the glass.”
Elena closed her eyes.
The phrases matched her hallucinations.
Not exactly.
But close.
Victoria had planted ideas while Elena slept.
Then the compound distorted them.
Dream became memory.
Suggestion became terror.
Marcus stopped the recording.
“No more.”
Dana disagreed.
“We need more.”
Elena opened her eyes.
“Play it.”
Caleb selected July 11.
Victoria entered.
But this time another voice followed.
Male.
Kessler.
Marcus leaned closer.
Kessler whispered.
“The dose is too high.”
Victoria replied.
“She’s resisting.”
“She’s pregnant.”
“That was always the point.”
“You said you wanted her unstable.”
“I want her undeniable.”
“What does that mean?”
“I want Marcus to see it himself.”
Kessler lowered his voice.
“You’re going to hurt the baby.”
“No.”
Victoria sounded almost offended.
“I’m going to protect the baby from its mother.”
Elena’s hand instinctively covered her stomach.
Marcus’s face went white.
The recording continued.
Kessler said something harder to hear.
Caleb increased the volume.
“If she miscarries, this entire plan collapses.”
Victoria answered.
“Then make sure she doesn’t.”
Dana looked sharply toward Caleb.
“Stop.”
The recording paused.
“Did she say plan?”
“Yes.”
“That’s conspiracy evidence.”
Marcus stared at the speaker.
“She’s using my child as leverage.”
Dana stood.
“I’m getting a warrant for Kessler.”
Marcus nodded.
“Good.”
Dana’s phone rang before she reached the door.
She answered.
Listened.
Her expression changed.
“When?”
Another pause.
“Keep him there.”
She hung up.
“Kessler tried to leave the country.”
Marcus laughed bitterly.
“Where?”
“Private terminal.”
“Destination?”
“Switzerland.”
Dana headed downstairs.
“I’ll call you.”
Elena watched her leave.
For the first time, there was momentum.
Proof.
Witnesses.
Evidence.
Something Victoria could not whisper away.
Then Caleb’s computer beeped.
Another stored recording had automatically decrypted.
The date was eight years old.
Long before Elena met Marcus.
The file name contained one word.
CAROLINE.
Marcus stared.
“My mother.”
Elena turned toward him.
Marcus’s biological mother, Caroline Ashcroft, had died when he was twenty-three.
Official cause.
Prescription overdose.
The family called it an accident.
Victoria married Edward Ashcroft less than two years later.
Marcus reached for the laptop.
“No.”
Caleb stopped him.
“Marcus.”
“Play it.”
Caleb hesitated.
Marcus’s voice changed.
“Play it.”
The recording began with a woman crying.
Caroline.
Marcus knew her voice instantly.
“I know what you’re doing.”
Another woman answered.
Victoria.
“You haven’t been sleeping.”
“You put something in my medicine.”
“You’re confused.”
“I saw the bottles.”
“Caroline.”
“You’re trying to make Edward think I’m unstable.”
Marcus gripped the desk.
Caroline’s voice trembled.
“He believes you.”
Victoria replied softly.
“Of course he does.”
The recording ended.
No one spoke.
Marcus stood perfectly still.
Elena touched his arm.
“Marcus.”
He looked at her.
His eyes were wet.
“She did this before.”
A message appeared on Elena’s phone.
Unknown number.
One sentence.
ASK MARCUS WHY HIS FATHER NEVER CALLED THE POLICE.
Elena looked at Marcus.
He had seen it.
May you like
And the expression on his face told her there was an answer.
One he had never told her.
