Chapter 4
The young officer's question made me fall into deep thought.
Aside from Michael, who else could have had access to this doll?
Or maybe someone used Michael to deliver it to me?
Michael was not the kind of guy who plotted things.
Honestly, he was a bit dumb—people could easily take advantage of him.
"If it isn't him, then who else can it be?" I muttered under my breath.
The older officer looked at me, his expression serious.
"Ms. Evans, this likely involves more people than just your ex-husband.
"Can you remember anything about Michael's wife?" the older officer asked.
I tried to remember the few photos I'd seen on social media.
The woman looked young, maybe in her twenties.
She had delicate features and a sweet smile.
That was all I knew.
After our divorce, I deleted all of Michael's contact information.
His social media posts were no longer visible to me.
I only saw those photos because mutual friends had shared them.
"All I know is that she's young. I really don't know anything else about her," I replied.
"What's her name? What does she do for a living? What's her family background?" the younger officer asked.
I shook my head.
I couldn't answer any of those questions.
"Do you have her contact information? Or her home address?" the younger officer asked.
I pointed to the open package on the table.
"The return address on the shipping label is her home address," I said.
The older officer gestured for the younger one to check the shipping label.
He glanced at it, a flicker of confusion in his eyes.
"This address... it's an old apartment complex out in the suburbs.
"Isn't Michael living in a luxury villa downtown now?" the older officer asked.
My heart started racing again.
When word got out about his remarriage, everyone said he'd married an heiress.
All the photos shared online showed his wedding taking place in a lavish mansion.
So why was the shipping address from a run-down apartment complex?
This just didn't add up.
"Michael bought that villa after he remarried," I explained.
"They had their wedding in that villa," I added.
The older officer paused for a moment, then turned to me.
"Ms. Evans, have you or Lily noticed anything strange lately?
"For example, have you felt like someone was following you, or seen anything out of place at home?" he added.
I thought back over the past few days.
Aside from the weird feeling that the doll gave me, nothing else really felt strange.
But...
Wasn't the way Lily acted at preschool, and how she clung to that doll, kind of odd?
"Lily told me the doll talks to her."
I shared every single thing Lily had said about the doll with the officers, not leaving out a word.
The older officer frowned slightly.
"Kids aren't fully mature yet, so it's easy for them to imagine things.
"But we can't rule out that someone might be using that to mess with her mind," he added.
He turned to the younger officer.
"Ryan, reach out to Lily's preschool and check on how she's been lately.
"And dig into Michael's wife's background.
"Focus on her recent social circle and see if there's anything off about her behavior," he instructed.
Ryan immediately responded and started making calls.
The older officer continued questioning me about Michael.
He asked in detail about the reasons for our divorce, as well as Michael's personality and behavior patterns during our marriage.
I tried to stay calm as I recalled those painful memories.
Michael wasn't a family man.
He loved going out and was always hanging around with all kinds of people.
We ended up divorcing because he was hardly ever home, and he barely paid any attention to Lily or me.
And there were even some... infidelities.
Still, I never believed Michael would ever hurt Lily like this.
When the police finally left, it was already deep into the night.
They took the dissected doll, the note, and that tiny listening device with them.
Before leaving, they warned me to keep a close eye on both my own safety and Lily's for the time being.
If anything suspicious happened, I was to call the police immediately.
The whole house fell silent.
I sat alone in the living room, and it felt like a thousand invisible eyes were watching me from the darkness outside the window.
I walked into Lily's room and watched her little face as she slept.
She was hugging her teddy bear, sleeping peacefully.
My chest tightened with a bittersweet feeling.
Michael, just what kind of trouble did you drag Lily and me into?
I couldn't sleep.
That crackling noise, the woman's desperate cries for help, and the warped scrawl on that note kept echoing in my head, again and again.
I pulled out my phone and started searching for the latest news about Michael.
The news of his remarriage had been all over the place a few months ago.
Rumors were flying that he'd married into money, tying the knot with some big shot's daughter.
I'd even seen a photo of Michael and his new wife at a super fancy party.
She was dressed in a designer gown, dripping with jewels, and her smile was dazzling.
That address on the shipping label made no sense at all compared to the glamorous life she showed online.
Clearly, something was seriously wrong here.
I stared at my phone screen, and suddenly, a detail I'd missed before caught my eye.
The angle of that party photo was a little off.
Michael and his wife looked like they'd been pulled together for the shot, their smiles stiff and unnatural.
And the party's background seemed to be on a... ship.
A cruise ship?