Daniel pushed the kitchen table against the door.
Marcus checked the windows.
Ruth stood beside me, breathing slowly.
The man outside did not knock again.
That silence was worse.
I looked at the cassette.
"Play it."
Daniel shook his head.
"Not here."
"Why?"
"Because if they hear what's on it, they'll know exactly what we have."
I almost laughed.
"They already know."
Daniel looked at Marcus.
Marcus nodded.
"She's right."
He picked up the old tape recorder.
"We need somewhere quiet."
"The basement," I said.
Nobody objected.
We went downstairs.
The hidden room felt smaller with four people inside it. Ruth sat against the wall. Marcus stood near the door. Daniel placed the recorder on the desk.
I inserted the cassette.
The machine clicked.
Static filled the room.
Then my father's voice.
"If this recording reaches my daughter, there may not be time to explain everything."
I closed my eyes.
His voice sounded exactly as I remembered from childhood videos.
Measured.
Careful.
Always a little tired.
"I need her to understand one thing first. None of this began with Jonah."
A pause.
"It began with the land."
Paper rustled.
"My father created a network of false companies. He used them to take property from families who trusted him. I discovered the records after his death."
Marcus whispered, "Keep listening."
My father's voice continued.
"I thought exposing him would be simple."
A bitter laugh.
"It wasn't."
He explained that the records were divided between several locations. Cedar Hill held the original ledger, but copies had been hidden elsewhere. People involved in the scheme began disappearing from the records.
Then came a sentence that made Daniel lower his head.
"Daniel knows more than I have told him."
I looked at my uncle.
He said nothing.
The tape continued.
"After Jonah was born, I realized someone had begun watching our family."
My father's voice became quieter.
"I could not tell Elena everything because I believed someone close to us was passing information to them."
Ruth shifted.
"Who?" I whispered.
She shook her head.
We kept listening.
"On October 14, I planned to move Jonah somewhere safe."
The tape crackled.
"Elena believed we were taking both children."
I looked at Daniel.
He stared at the floor.
"But Daniel had already discovered the meeting."
My father's voice stopped.
A burst of static filled the room.
Then:
"If anything happens to me, the person who arranged the meeting is not Marcus."
Marcus closed his eyes.
I looked at him.
The tape continued.
"It is someone I trusted."
The recording suddenly became distorted.
I leaned closer.
A man's voice appeared in the background.
Not my father.
Not Daniel.
Someone else.
"You brought the ledger?"
My father answered.
"Where is the boy?"
"Safe."
"No. Show me."
A chair scraped.
Then a sound like something hitting the floor.
The recording cut to silence.
I stared at the machine.
"That's it?"
Daniel reached for the recorder.
"There's more."
He turned the cassette over.
I frowned.
"You didn't tell me."
"I didn't know whether it would still play."
He pressed the button.
Static.
Then my mother's voice.
She was crying.
"Thomas, please."
My father said, "You have to take her."
"Both of them."
"No."
"She deserves her brother."
"Not if knowing about him gets her killed."
My mother's breathing became ragged.
Then she said something that made me grip the desk.
"Jonah isn't the danger."
My father answered.
"I know."
"The danger is who has him."
The tape clicked.
A man's voice spoke from farther away.
"Thomas."
My father went silent.
The recording ended.
I stared at Daniel.
"Who had Jonah?"
Daniel's face was pale.
"Someone working for your father."
"Who?"
"I don't know."
Marcus said, "He knows."
Daniel turned.
"Don't."
Marcus stepped forward.
"You've protected this secret for six years."
"Because it kept her alive."
"She's old enough now."
I looked at Daniel.
"What are you not telling me?"
He sat down.
"Jonah wasn't taken by strangers."
My heart stopped.
"Then who?"
"Your mother."
The words barely reached me.
I shook my head.
"That's impossible."
"She believed she was saving him."
"From whom?"
"Your father."
I stared at him.
Daniel rubbed his face.
"Thomas had decided Jonah was the key to forcing the people behind the property scheme into the open."
"That doesn't make sense."
"It didn't to Elena either."
"Then why would she take him?"
"Because she thought Thomas was going to use Jonah as bait."
I remembered my mother's locked bedroom.
The missing photographs.
The way she never spoke my brother's name.
I whispered, "Where did she take him?"
Daniel looked at Ruth.
Ruth answered.
"St. Mary's."
I felt dizzy.
"The hospital record."
"Yes."
"Then why does it say he was transferred?"
"Because he was."
"Where?"
Nobody answered.
A vehicle passed above us.
The headlights briefly illuminated the basement window.
Then the vehicle stopped.
Marcus went to the door.
"Someone followed us."
Daniel stood.
"We need to leave."
I took the cassette.
"No."
He looked at me.
"I'm done running."
A sound came from upstairs.
A key entered the front door.
Someone unlocked it.
Daniel stared at Marcus.
Marcus whispered, "He has a key."
The door upstairs opened.
Footsteps entered the farmhouse.
Slowly.
Confidently.
Someone called Daniel's name.
Then came a second voice.
A voice I recognized from somewhere I couldn't place.
"Come upstairs."
Ruth looked at me.
Her expression had changed completely.
She whispered four words.
"Your father isn't dead."
Click here to continue reading: PART 7: The Voice Upstairs Belonged to Someone Who Should Have Been Gone, and Daniel’s Final Secret Put Me in Terrible Danger
The Night I Pretended to Sleep While My Uncle Whispered a Name I Had Never Heard Before
Part 6 of 20
