Chapter 8 - THE VOICE IN THE DARK
Samantha drove to Elena’s house before sunrise.
She found Elena sitting on Lily’s bed, holding the paper rabbit her daughter had made for Mother’s Day.
“You need to hear something,” Samantha said.
Elena saw her expression and stood too quickly.
“They found them?”
“Not yet.”
Samantha opened her laptop.
The uploaded file was incomplete.
Only eleven minutes had reached the cloud before the watch disconnected.
But the recording began seconds before the crash.
Rain hammered the car.
Lily’s frightened voice said, “Mom, Dad’s car is too close.”
Elena heard herself shout.
Metal screamed.
Sophie began crying.
Then came the impact.
For almost a minute, there was only water, broken glass, and the watch rubbing against fabric.
A man’s voice appeared.
“Get the girls out.”
Silas.
Elena covered her mouth.
On the recording, Lily cried, “Mom is still in there!”
Silas answered, “Do not look back.”
Another voice told him Elena might be alive.
Margot.
Silas replied, “Not for long.”
Elena folded forward as though struck.
Samantha stopped the recording.
“No,” Elena whispered. “Play it.”
The audio continued.
Lily begged to return to the car.
Sophie screamed for Elena.
A third man ordered them into another vehicle.
Then Silas said, “Take them to the north property. No phones. No windows.”
Margot asked what would happen if Elena survived.
Silas’s answer came clearly.
“Then we make everyone believe she killed them.”
Elena began sobbing.
Samantha held her while the recording played.
Near the end, Lily whispered to Sophie.
“My watch is listening.”
The final sound was a car door slamming.
The file ended.
Elena lifted her head.
“They’re alive.”
“They were alive after the crash.”
“They are alive.”
Samantha did not argue.
The location data was less useful than they hoped.
The watch had connected to a router registered through a private network service.
The precise address was hidden.
But the connection occurred somewhere north of the city.
Samantha sent the file to Detective Torres.
Torres immediately reopened the investigation as a suspected kidnapping and attempted homicide.
She also requested traffic footage from every intersection between River Road and the northern county line.
The problem was time.
The watch had gone offline again.
Silas was still free.
Margot was still with him.
If either learned the audio existed, they might move the girls.
Detective Torres urged Elena to remain home and let police cancel the funeral.
Elena refused.
“Silas expects me there.”
“That makes you a target.”
“It also keeps him in one place.”
Samantha understood first.
“If he believes Elena is still broken, he won’t know we have the recording.”
Torres disliked the plan.
But the chapel already had plainclothes officers assigned to monitor the service.
She agreed to delay intervention until the traffic footage was verified.
Elena dressed in black.
She placed Lily’s drawing inside her purse.
Before leaving, she stood in the doorway of the girls’ bedroom.
“You kept listening,” she whispered. “Now I’m coming.”
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👉 Elena entered the funeral knowing the coffins were empty—but she had to pretend her daughters were dead until the detectives found where Silas had taken them.
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