Chapter 18 - THE FULL RECORDING
The complete garden audio was forty-one minutes.
I listened once.
Never again.
At first, conversation.
Then accusation.
Then the sound of Ryan taking my visible phone.
He threw it onto patio.
Then:
“Sit down.”
“No.”
“Rachel.”
“Don’t touch me.”
Movement.
My gasp.
Then:
“You’re staying here until you listen.”
He pushed me into the shallow end of the trench.
I tried climbing.
He shoveled wet soil around my legs.
Not a complete burial in minutes.
Enough to pin.
I screamed:
“What are you doing?”
“Making you stop.”
Then:
“You always run when things get hard.”
I begged.
He kept adding soil.
Not to kill me, according to his later claim.
To immobilize.
To terrify.
That distinction did not comfort me.
Then the sentence:
“You thought you could leave me before the baby was born?”
Later:
“You sign Monday. Then you can hate me all you want.”
There it was.
Specific.
Signature.
Monday.
May you like
Loan closing.
The garden assault and financial coercion were directly connected.
