Chapter 6 - The Incoming Call
The phone kept vibrating.
Camryn’s portrait appeared again, smiling from a world where she believed she still controlled the room.
Sophia lifted Marvin’s phone higher.
Her own phone captured both screens now: his mother calling, her own recording active, Marvin’s terrified eyes, the shattered table behind them.
His breathing became ragged.
“Sophia, listen to me.”
She watched him carefully.
That phrase had always come before a performance.
Listen to me meant forgive me before I explain.
Listen to me meant ignore what you saw.
Listen to me meant help me protect the version of myself I prefer.
She did not answer.
He continued, voice low and desperate.
“She says things. She doesn’t mean them.”
Sophia’s eyes narrowed.
“She said hit me.”
His face twisted.
“She grew up different.”
“She is alive now.”
“She worries about me.”
“She taught you to threaten your wife.”
His mouth opened.
Closed.
There was no safe answer.
The call vibrated again.
Sophia’s thumb moved closer to the answer button.
Marvin shook his head violently.
His curls stuck to his forehead with sweat.
“No. Don’t. Please don’t.”
The panic in his face was grotesque now.
Not fear of Sophia’s safety.
Fear of exposure.
Fear of Camryn hearing what her son sounded like pinned and powerless.
Fear of the family script breaking while she watched.
Sophia leaned closer.
Still holding him safely.
Still not injuring him.
Only controlling the arm that had reached for her.
“You were going to make me obey,” she said softly.
His eyes filled.
Not with remorse.
With terror.
She could tell the difference now.
The phone vibrated harder against her fingers.
Camryn’s smiling portrait remained.
No readable text.
No subtitles.
No escape.
Sophia looked into her own recording lens and saw herself reflected in the black glass.
Hair loose.
Dress wrinkled.
Tears on her face.
Eyes calm.
She did not look like the woman Marvin expected to train.
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She looked like the one who had survived the first lesson and kept the evidence.
Read Chapter 7 👉 Because the call kept coming, and every vibration made Marvin look less like a husband and more like a messenger afraid of his handler.
