Chapter 8: The Recorded Call

Chloe’s suspicion of Marcus only intensified after our conversation. She’d always been observant, and now she directed that sharp intellect towards understanding his deception. She felt a burning need to protect me, to unmask the man who had caused so much pain.

One afternoon, she overheard me making calls to Sarah, discussing the need to find David Chen. She put her own plan into motion, a risky maneuver that made my heart pound when I later learned of it.

She knew Liam O’Connell, Marcus’s best man, frequented a particular coffee shop near his office. Liam was a casual acquaintance, someone she’d met a few times through Marcus when we were still together. Chloe, with an innocent look and a perfectly timed trip to the coffee shop, orchestrated a “chance encounter.”

She spotted Liam at a corner table, scrolling through his phone. She approached him with a bright, friendly smile, feigning surprise.

“Liam? Hi!” she chirped, as if bumping into him was the most natural thing in the world. “Wow, what are the odds? How are you doing after… everything?”

Liam looked up, startled. His face immediately clouded with discomfort. “Chloe, hey. Yeah, it’s… been a lot.”

She sat down at his table, uninvited but with such an air of casualness that he couldn’t refuse. “Mom’s been so stressed. She says Marcus is telling everyone she’s just being vindictive. It’s making me really worried about her.”

This was her hook, a direct appeal to his conscience, or at least his sense of awkwardness. She watched his reaction, noting the way he fidgeted with his phone.

“Well, you know Marcus,” Liam said, his voice hesitant. “He’s just… under a lot of pressure. And Evelyn can be pretty intense.”

Chloe nodded sympathetically. “I know. But I just don’t understand how he could do something like this. Like, forging signatures? And the shell company? That seems… really complicated for a ‘misunderstanding.'”

She leaned in slightly, lowering her voice. “He even got Cassandra to believe Mom is crazy. She seemed so confused after the wedding. Is he really like that? Does he just… make things up?”

Liam hesitated, glancing around the busy coffee shop. He was clearly uncomfortable, but Chloe’s sincere, worried demeanor was disarming. He clearly didn’t want to defend Marcus’s most egregious actions.

“He’s just good with people, Chloe,” Liam admitted, almost whispering. “He knows how to talk his way out of anything. I mean, Cassandra’s a sweet girl, but she’s a little naive. And Evelyn… well, he always said she was easy to fool when it came to anything personal.”

The casual dismissiveness of Marcus’s assessment of me, relayed through Liam, was a small, sharp wound. It confirmed his contempt for my empathy, seeing it as a weakness to be exploited. It also highlighted Liam’s own moral bankruptcy, so easily swayed by Marcus’s influence.

Chloe kept the conversation light, asking about his job, his life, making him feel at ease. She then excused herself to the restroom, leaving her phone on the table. Crucially, before she walked away, she made a quick call to Marcus from Liam’s phone, using a recording app she had secretly installed.

Marcus, seeing Liam’s number, answered immediately.

“Hey, buddy! What’s up?” Marcus’s voice boomed through the phone, oblivious to Chloe’s presence.

“Oh, hey, Marcus. Nothing much, just grabbing a coffee,” Chloe said, expertly mimicking Liam’s slightly slurred, relaxed tone. “Man, that wedding. What a disaster. How’s Cassandra doing? And Evelyn’s been saying some wild stuff.”

Marcus laughed, a chilling, self-satisfied sound. “Cassandra? She’s fine. A little shook up, but she’ll come around. She always does. Honestly, she’s so easily manipulated, you wouldn’t believe it.”

The blatant, arrogant admission sent a shiver down Chloe’s spine, but she kept her voice steady, urging him on.

“And Evelyn? She thinks she’s got some big case,” Chloe prodded, playing the role perfectly.

“Evelyn? Ha!” Marcus scoffed. “She was always easy to fool, man. Always believed the best in people, especially me. She’s just pissed because I finally got out from under her thumb. She’s too trusting for her own good. She thinks she’s so smart, but emotionally? She’s a soft touch. Always has been.”

He boasted about how he convinced Cassandra that I was an “unhinged ex,” and how Liam himself was a witness to my “overbearing” nature. He even hinted at how he’d twisted past events, where I supported him, into examples of my “controlling” behavior.

“She just needs to be reminded of her place,” Marcus continued, his voice oozing with smugness. “And I’m just the guy to do it. Let her try her little lawsuits. They won’t stick. I’ll just keep her busy. She never learns.”

Chloe, listening from the restroom stall, felt a wave of disgust and fury. He was reveling in his deceit, casually dissecting my character, twisting my every strength into a weakness. It was a cold, calculated betrayal of all trust, and a stark display of Marcus’s true nature.

She ended the call a few minutes later, retrieving her phone from Liam’s table with a casual thanks. The recording, a damning indictment of Marcus’s character and his manipulative strategies, was now safely stored. It was a personal victory, but also a chilling confirmation of the depths of his cruelty, a specific wound inflicted by his words.