Chapter 19 · The Switch He's Still Holding

Chapter 19: The Switch He's Still Holding

"Don't move your mouth," Luca says. "I want to watch your face do this on its own."

His thumb sits under my jaw, not pressing, just resting there like he's counting my pulse through the skin. My back's flat against the cabinet door, the cold metal biting through my blouse. The vault room has no windows. No signal either — he made sure of that the first week, had the walls lined so nothing gets in or out. Reaction without an exit. That's the whole design.

He holds up the second recorder. Small, black, a switch on the side I've never seen before. Not the one from the signing table. A different one.

"Found this in your father's lawyer's car," he says. "Spliced. Your voice, cut up to say something you never said whole." He flips the switch. Nothing happens yet. Just the small click, loud in a room with no other sound to hide in. "I want to see what your face does when I play it. That's all I want tonight."

I don't answer.