Part20 : MY NINETEEN-YEAR-OLD GRANDSON

I couldn’t breathe.

“You’re saying I spoke to my husband that night?”

Victor nodded.

“But I don’t remember.”

“You weren’t supposed to.”

Margaret looked at him sharply.

“What does that mean?”

Victor lowered his voice.

“Someone gave Evelyn something before she went to bed.”

I frowned.

“What?”

“A sedative.”

I stared at him.

“No.”

“You were exhausted. Your husband told you he had something important to discuss. You sat beside him.”

I shook my head.

“I remember him being sick.”

“You remember waking up.”

My heart pounded.

“But not everything that happened before.”

Victor pointed at the cassette.

“Listen.”

We found an old cassette player in the hospital’s records room.

My hands trembled as I inserted the tape.

Static filled the room.

Then I heard a voice.

My husband’s voice.

“Evelyn?”

I covered my mouth.

It was him.

Young.

Tired.

Afraid.

Then I heard my own voice.

“I’m here.”

I looked at Margaret.

“I don’t remember saying that.”

The recording continued.

My husband whispered:

“I need you to trust me.”

My recorded voice answered:

“I always trust you.”

There was a long silence.

Then he said something that made my blood run cold.

“If they come after you, don’t tell them where the box is.”

My eyes filled with tears.

“What box?”

The recording continued.

“The one I’ll give Caleb.”

I heard myself ask:

“Why Caleb?”

“Because they won’t suspect a child.”

I closed my eyes.

My husband had planned everything.

Not because he didn’t trust me.

Because he knew I would try to protect everyone.

Even the people who were trying to destroy us.

Then his voice changed.

“They’re coming.”

My recorded voice whispered:

“Who?”

“Arthur.”

A door slammed in the background.

My husband said:

“Evelyn, go upstairs.”

But I didn’t.

Instead, my recorded voice said something that made my entire body go cold.

“No.”

The tape continued.

“I won’t leave you.”

My husband replied:

“If you stay, they’ll use you against me.”

Then another voice appeared.

Arthur.

“It’s too late.”

I stopped the tape.

No one spoke.

I was crying.

I had spent twenty years believing I had been asleep when my husband died.

But I hadn’t.

I had been there.

I had heard the truth.

And somehow, my mind had buried it.

“Play it,” I whispered.

Margaret pressed the button.

Arthur’s voice came through.

“You should have given us the money.”

My husband answered:

“You’ll never find it.”

Arthur laughed.

“We don’t need to.”

There was a pause.

Then he said:

“We have your wife.”

I froze.

My husband replied:

“No. You don’t.”

A loud crash followed.

Then silence.

The tape ended.

I stared at the cassette.

“That isn’t the whole recording.”

Victor nodded.

“No.”

“Where’s the rest?”

He looked at me.

“Your husband hid it.”

“Where?”

Victor hesitated.

“Inside the house.”

My heart stopped.

“The house?”

“Yes.”

“Where?”

Victor looked at Caleb.

“Your grandfather gave the final clue to someone before he died.”

Caleb frowned.

“Who?”

Victor answered:

“Your grandmother.”

I stared at him.

“Me?”

“Yes.”

“But I don’t remember.”

Victor nodded.

“That was the point.”

Then Caleb suddenly stood.

“Grandma.”

“What?”

“I remember something.”

“What?”

He looked terrified.

“Grandpa didn’t just give me the box.”

He swallowed.

“He gave you something too.”

I searched my memory.

“What?”

Caleb’s eyes filled with tears.

“He put something in your wedding ring.”