Chapter 2 - The Recording Beneath the Bed
Dustin’s room looked as though someone had searched it.
His dresser drawers were half open. Books had been pulled from the shelf and stacked unevenly on the floor. The blue storage box where he kept letters from his late father sat upside down beside the bed.
Clarissa stopped in the doorway.
“Did you do this?”
Dustin shook his head.
“Grandma Alana said she was organizing.”
Clarissa set the grocery bags down and knelt beside the overturned box.
Before marrying Parker three years earlier, Clarissa had been married to a firefighter named Noah Reed. Noah died during a warehouse rescue when Dustin was four. The country house had been the last place they purchased together, though the deed had always remained in Clarissa’s name because Noah’s credit had been damaged by medical debt.
Dustin kept every photograph of his father inside that blue box.
Now several were missing.
“Did Grandma take anything?”
“She said Dad’s things made Parker feel bad.”
Clarissa’s chest tightened.
“Did Parker say that?”
“No.”
“What else happened while I was working?”
Dustin looked toward the hallway.
Then he whispered, “Grandma made me call Parker ‘Dad.’”
Clarissa sat beside him.
“Did you want to?”
“I like Parker, but Noah is my dad too.”
“You are allowed to love Parker without changing what Noah means to you.”
Dustin nodded, but fear remained in his eyes.
“She said if I didn’t call him Dad, Parker might send us away.”
Clarissa took his hand.
“No one is sending you anywhere.”
Downstairs, Ellie’s voice rose through the ceiling.
“Parker, your wife has lost her mind!”
Clarissa heard the faint sound of her husband answering through the phone.
She could not make out his words.
Dustin looked frightened.
“Is Parker mad?”
“I don’t know.”
That was the honest answer.
Parker had always defended his mother with the same excuse.
She means well.
Whenever Alana criticized Dustin’s table manners, she meant well.
Whenever Ellie referred to him as “Clarissa’s boy” instead of her nephew, she meant well.
Whenever Alana reminded Clarissa that Parker deserved “a child of his own blood,” she meant well.
Clarissa had accepted too many insults because Parker seemed kind in private.
Now she wondered whether kindness that vanished around family was kindness at all.
She opened Dustin’s closet and pulled out his suitcase.
A small black object fell from the top shelf.
It hit the floor and rolled beneath the bed.
Clarissa reached for it.
It was a voice recorder.
Not Dustin’s.
The red light was still blinking.
“Have you seen this before?”
He shook his head.
“Grandma put something up there yesterday. She told me not to touch it.”
Clarissa pressed stop.
The recorder had captured more than eleven hours of audio.
She connected it to her phone.
The newest file began that morning.
At first, she heard chairs moving and dishes clattering.
Then Alana’s voice.
“Parker will sign after Clarissa loses her temper.”
Ellie answered, “She won’t. She always acts calm.”
“Then we make her angry.”
“With the boy?”
“He’s the easiest way.”
Clarissa’s fingers went cold.
Ellie laughed.
“A cold lunch isn’t enough.”
“It will be when she arrives unexpectedly.”
“She wasn’t supposed to come today.”
“She will eventually find something. We need photographs of her shouting or grabbing one of us.”
Clarissa paused the recording.
Dustin stared at her.
“They knew you were coming?”
“Maybe.”
She continued listening.
Ellie’s voice lowered.
“Once Parker signs the affidavit, we can argue she’s unstable and remove her from managing the property.”
“What about the deed?”
“The deed stays in her name until the separation. But Parker gets marital occupancy, and Mom gets authority to care for Dustin.”
Alana replied, “I do not want that boy.”
“You don’t need to keep him. We only need leverage.”
Clarissa felt sick.
They were not merely cruel.
They had planned the cruelty.
Dustin was bait.
Ellie continued.
“If Clarissa looks neglectful, Parker can claim she works too much and leaves Dustin with unsafe people. Then we say the country house should remain available for his family until the custody issue is resolved.”
“What if Parker refuses?”
“He won’t. He already signed the insurance forms.”
“What insurance forms?”
“The ones naming him beneficiary if something happens to Clarissa.”
Clarissa stopped the recording again.
Her life insurance policy named Dustin’s trust as beneficiary.
Parker was the alternate trustee, not the beneficiary.
Unless someone had changed it.
She checked her insurance account from her phone.
The password no longer worked.
Downstairs, the front door slammed.
Parker had arrived.
Clarissa placed the recorder inside her pocket and told Dustin to stay in the room.
“Lock the door behind me.”
“Mom—”
“I’ll be right downstairs.”
Parker stood in the dining room, still wearing his mechanic’s uniform. His face was flushed from the drive.
Alana sat at the table crying.
Ellie rubbed her shoulders as though Clarissa had attacked her.
“You gave my family two hours to leave?” Parker demanded.
“Yes.”
“Mom has nowhere to go.”
“She has an apartment in Columbus.”
“The plumbing is being repaired.”
“She stayed there last week.”
Ellie pointed toward the kitchen.
“She threw away Dustin’s food and threatened us.”
“I threw away a cold potato after you gave my groceries to everyone except my son.”
“He was being disciplined.”
“You do not discipline a child by isolating him from food.”
Parker rubbed both hands over his face.
“Clarissa, can we discuss this without making people homeless?”
“This is my house.”
“We are married.”
“Yes. Which makes what happened here worse, not more acceptable.”
Alana stood.
“You have always made Parker feel like a guest.”
“I put his name on the household accounts.”
“But not the deed.”
“I bought the house before I met him.”
“A wife should share.”
“A mother should feed a seven-year-old.”
Parker glanced toward the staircase.
“Where’s Dustin?”
“Safe.”
“He’s safe with us,” Alana said.
Clarissa looked at her.
“No. He isn’t.”
Ellie moved closer to Parker.
“Do you see how she talks to your mother? She needs help.”
Clarissa removed the recorder from her pocket.
Alana’s face changed instantly.
“What is that?” Parker asked.
Clarissa pressed play.
His mother’s voice filled the dining room.
Parker will sign after Clarissa loses her temper.
No one moved.
The recording continued.
We need photographs of her shouting or grabbing one of us.
Parker turned toward Ellie.
“What is this?”
Ellie recovered first.
“It’s fake.”
Clarissa played the next section.
Once Parker signs the affidavit, we can argue she’s unstable.
Parker’s face went pale.
Then the insurance discussion played.
He looked at Clarissa.
“I don’t know anything about changing your policy.”
“Did you sign forms?”
“Ellie said they were tax documents.”
Clarissa laughed without humor.
“You signed papers without reading them?”
Parker lowered his eyes.
Alana grabbed her suitcase.
“This family is turning against me.”
“No,” Clarissa said. “Your plan failed.”
A car pulled into the driveway.
Through the window, Clarissa saw a man in a gray suit step out carrying a leather folder.
Ellie smiled again.
“That will be our attorney.”
The man knocked and introduced himself as Grant Holloway.
He handed Clarissa an envelope.
Inside was a petition alleging she was mentally unstable, financially reckless, and dangerous to Dustin.
Attached was a temporary request granting Parker exclusive occupancy of the country house.
Parker stared at the signature at the bottom.
His name was written beneath the sworn statement.
“I didn’t sign this,” he whispered.
Grant Holloway looked at him calmly.
“Your notarized signature says otherwise.”
Then Clarissa noticed something else.
The petition had been filed three days earlier.
May you like
And the emergency hearing was scheduled for the following morning.
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