Chapter 6 - The Voice on Hailey’s Phone
Hailey had recorded more than photographs.
She used an audio application disguised as a calculator.
She began recording Mark after he denied her pain for the third time.
Most files captured ordinary conversations.
Mark asking whether she had eaten.
Mark telling her not to upset me.
Mark warning her that doctors might place her in psychiatric care if she kept inventing symptoms.
Then we found a recording made two weeks earlier.
Mark was speaking to Dr. Voss in the kitchen.
“The growth rate is slowing,” Mark said.
Voss answered.
“Then increase the compound.”
“She is already vomiting.”
“That means the immune response is active.”
“What if Laura takes her to a doctor?”
“She won’t.”
“You trained her to doubt the girl.”
Mark laughed.
“She trusts me more than she trusts herself.”
I stopped the recording.
I could not breathe.
Hailey reached for my hand.
“You didn’t know.”
“I should have known.”
“He was good at sounding reasonable.”
That was exactly what made the truth unbearable.
Mark had never needed to shout.
He smiled.
He explained.
He turned every alarm into an overreaction.
The recording continued.
Mark asked how long they needed Hailey.
Voss replied.
“Until we recover a stable cell line.”
“And after that?”
“The capsule can fail naturally.”
Mark was silent.
Then he asked.
“Would that kill her?”
Voss answered.
“Probably.”
The detective took the phone as evidence.
Police upgraded the investigation to attempted murder and illegal human experimentation.
A search warrant was issued for our home and Mark’s office.
Inside a locked cabinet beneath the garage floor, investigators found seven medical files.
The first six contained photographs of children.
The final file carried Hailey’s name.
May you like
One of the first six children had survived.
Her address was only twenty miles away.
