Chapter 10: The First Recording

The drive back from the bank felt longer than it should have.

The USB drive rested inside Elena’s handbag like a silent weight, drawing her thoughts back to it every few minutes. Adrian had hidden it for three years, waiting for a day he had prayed would never come.

Now that day had arrived.

She stepped into the apartment and immediately noticed the silence.

It no longer felt like home.

Adrian’s shoes were gone.

The wardrobe door stood slightly open, revealing empty spaces where his suits had once hung. The photograph from their honeymoon still rested on the bookshelf, but everything else that belonged to him had disappeared.

He had truly left.

Elena closed the front door behind her and leaned against it, fighting the tears threatening to escape.

Yesterday she had been someone’s wife.

Today she wasn’t sure who she was anymore.

She walked slowly into the living room and placed her handbag on the coffee table. Her eyes drifted to the framed photograph from their wedding day. Adrian had been smiling so widely that his eyes almost disappeared, while she looked at him as though the rest of the world no longer existed.

She picked up the frame.

“Why?” she whispered.

The empty apartment offered no answer.

She lowered the photograph onto the shelf with trembling hands. Every corner of the apartment carried traces of the life they had built together. The faded mug Adrian insisted on using every morning still sat beside the sink. His favorite novel remained on the coffee table, a receipt marking the page he never finished. Even the blanket draped over the couch had been chosen after an hour-long argument because she preferred cream while he insisted that darker colors were easier to keep clean.

She closed her eyes, allowing the memories to wash over her. None of them felt fake. None of them looked like the life of a man preparing to betray his wife. That was what hurt the most. Every memory fought against the story unfolding before her, leaving her caught between what she had lived and what she had been forced to believe.

After several minutes, she opened her laptop.

Her fingers trembled as she inserted the USB drive.

A single folder appeared on the screen.

FOR ELENA

There were three video files.

The first was simply titled:

Watch Me First

Her heartbeat quickened.

She clicked play.

The screen flickered before Adrian appeared.

He wore the same navy suit he had worn on their third wedding anniversary. His hair was slightly untidy, and his eyes carried the same exhaustion she had seen during his final days at home.

For several seconds, he simply looked into the camera.

When he finally spoke, his voice was barely above a whisper.

“If you’re watching this… then I wasn’t strong enough to stop what was coming.”

Elena’s breath caught.

“I know you’re angry,” Adrian continued. “You should be. Everything you’re thinking about me is probably deserved.”

He paused, lowering his eyes.

“But before you decide that I stopped loving you… I need you to remember something.”

The screen changed.

A short home video began to play.

Elena gasped.

It was their first apartment.

The tiny kitchen.

The worn-out sofa they had bought second-hand.

She watched herself laughing as Adrian burned breakfast while pretending to be a celebrity chef.

The younger version of Adrian looked into the camera.

“One day we’ll watch this in a mansion.”

The younger Elena laughed.

“I don’t need a mansion.”

“What do you need?”

She smiled without hesitation.

“You.”

The recording returned to the present.

Adrian could barely look into the camera.

“I replayed that video every night.”

A tear slipped down Elena’s cheek.

“I wanted to remember the version of us that believed love could survive anything.”

His breathing became uneven.

“But I was wrong.”

Elena shook her head.

“No…”

“You once asked me to promise that I’d never choose money over you.”

He forced a painful smile.

“I kept that promise.”

Confusion replaced her grief.

“What?”

“I never sold you.”

The sentence echoed through the room.

Elena stared at the screen, unable to move.

“I know that’s what everyone will make you believe.”

He leaned closer to the camera.

“But listen to me carefully.”

His voice became firmer.

“I signed away my marriage.”

“I signed away my future.”

“I signed away every chance I had of being forgiven.”

“But I never sold my wife.”

Tears streamed freely down Elena’s face.

If he hadn’t sold her…

Then why had Damien insisted on the divorce?

The video suddenly froze.

A message appeared across the screen.

FILE INTERRUPTED

Playback ended.

Elena refused to believe that was all Adrian had left behind. She clicked the video again, hoping the interruption had been nothing more than a technical error. The same recording played, the same confession echoed through the speakers, and the screen froze at exactly the same moment.

Frustration tightened her chest.

She opened the remaining files, but each one was protected by a password.

“What password?” she whispered to herself.

She tried their wedding anniversary.

Access denied.

She entered the date they first met.

Access denied.

With every failed attempt, her anxiety grew. Adrian had wanted her to see these recordings, yet he had hidden the rest behind a code only she was meant to understand. Somewhere in their shared past was the answer, and until she found it, the truth would remain locked away.

Elena stared at the monitor in disbelief.

“No…”

She clicked the file again.

Nothing.

The recording stopped at the same place every time.

Before she could try again, someone knocked on the apartment door.

Three slow knocks.

The same deliberate rhythm she had heard the day the divorce papers arrived.

Her pulse quickened.

She slowly stood.

Another knock echoed through the apartment.

Whoever stood outside…

Already knew she had watched the first recording.

She Felt Numb.