I said nothing.
I simply stepped aside.
The social worker approached Mom.
“Mrs. Bennett, are you afraid of your son?”
Mom looked at Daniel.
Her lips trembled.
Then she nodded.
“Yes.”
Daniel’s face collapsed.
“Mom, no.”
She looked at him again.
“You told me nobody would believe me.”
The room became completely silent.
“I believed you were my son,” she continued.
“I kept making excuses for you.”
“But you tied me to my bed.”
Daniel shook his head.
“That never happened.”
I pressed play.
His own voice came through the phone.
Not from tonight.
From a recording Mom had made weeks earlier.
“Sign the papers, Mom. Or you’ll regret making this difficult.”
Then Vanessa’s voice.
“She’s never going to tell anyone. Who would believe her?”
Daniel stared at my phone.
“You recorded us?”
Mom whispered, “I did.”
Everyone looked at her.
She slowly reached into the pocket of her robe and pulled out a tiny old phone.
“I hid it in my nightstand.”
She had saved everything.
Messages.
Voicemails.
Photographs.
Bank alerts.
Even pictures of documents Daniel had forced her to sign.
