CHAPTER 1 — The Voice Beneath My Roof
The sound that escaped my daughter's throat wasn't ordinary crying.
It sounded like someone fighting to stay alive.
I stayed frozen beneath the bed, every muscle locked in place as Josephine struggled to catch her breath.
"Dad can't know..."
Her whisper barely reached me.
"He'll hate me..."
My heart stopped.
Hate her?
For what?
I wanted to crawl out immediately and wrap my arms around her, but something inside me screamed not to move.
She wasn't alone.
A notification chimed.
Then another.
Her fingers shook as she unlocked her phone.
A voice message began to play through the speaker.
A teenage boy laughed.
"So... have you decided? Tomorrow everyone sees the next video."
Another voice joined him.
"If you tell your parents, we'll send everything to the whole school."
Someone else laughed.
"You'll be famous."
Josephine covered her mouth to keep from screaming.
"No... please..."
My blood turned to ice.
Videos?
What videos?
She whispered between sobs.
"I already did everything you wanted..."
The reply came instantly.
"Not everything."
"You still have tomorrow."
Then the recording ended.
Silence.
Except for my daughter's broken breathing.
I wanted to explode.
Who were these monsters?
How long had this been happening?
Josephine slowly slid off the bed onto the floor.
Only inches separated us.
I could hear every shaky breath.
"I don't want to die..."
The words shattered me.
She stayed there nearly fifteen minutes before wiping her tears, putting her backpack back on, and quietly leaving through the window facing the backyard.
She hadn't gone to school.
She had never gone.
The moment she disappeared, I crawled out.
My legs almost gave way.
On the floor beside the bed lay a folded piece of notebook paper she had accidentally dropped.
I opened it.
One sentence.
"If you tell your father, he'll disappear next."
My hands began shaking.
Whoever was tormenting my daughter knew me.
Knew where I worked.
Knew our family.
And suddenly Mrs. Gable's words echoed inside my head.
"You don't know what's happening inside your own house."
She had been right.
But she hadn't heard the worst part.
Someone had declared war on my family.
And I had absolutely no idea who.
That evening I acted as if nothing had happened.
Rebecca served spaghetti.
Josephine barely touched hers.
Neither looked at the other.
The silence between them suddenly felt... rehearsed.
Rebecca smiled too quickly.
Josephine flinched every time her mother's phone buzzed.
Something was terribly wrong.
Then, just before dinner ended...
Rebecca looked directly at Josephine.
"Remember what we talked about."
Josephine immediately lowered her head.
"Yes, Mom."
It wasn't obedience.
It was fear.
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For the first time in twenty years of marriage...
I became afraid of my own wife.
