"You can't hide, Clara!" Ethan yelled, limping quickly around the front bumper. "The police aren't coming! Nobody is coming for you! You're completely alone!"
He swung the wrench again, this time aiming for my shoulder.
I threw my hands up instinctively. The heavy steel handle caught my forearm. A sickening jolt of pain shot up to my elbow, forcing a sharp cry from my lungs. I stumbled backward, dropping the syringe, my back hitting the cold concrete wall of the garage.
I was out of space.
Ethan closed the distance in two long strides. He dropped the wrench, no longer needing it. He reached out and grabbed me by the throat with one massive hand, slamming me hard against the concrete wall.
The air was instantly cut off from my windpipe. I gagged, my hands flying up to claw desperately at his thick fingers, but it was like trying to pry apart iron bars.
"I gave you everything," Ethan hissed, his face inches from mine, his breath hot and smelling of whiskey and panic. "I gave you a beautiful home. I gave you a child. All you had to do was let me handle the money! But you had to make it difficult. You had to fight me."
Black spots began to dance at the edges of my vision. My lungs burned, begging for oxygen that couldn't get past his crushing grip.
Sarah stepped around the back of the SUV, watching us. She didn't look triumphant anymore; she looked terrified of the monster she had helped unleash.
"Ethan, just put her in the trunk," Sarah stammered nervously. "We need to go. If the transport team arrives and sees this..."
"Shut up!" Ethan roared without looking at her, his grip tightening on my throat.
My arms were growing weak, the frantic fighting instinct fading as my brain starved for air.
Think, a small voice in my mind screamed. Think!
My right hand, the one he hadn't struck with the wrench, fell limply to my side. My fingers brushed against the deep pocket of the ruined blue evening gown.
I had tied the dress up when I climbed out the window, exposing the hidden pockets Ethan had laughed at when I bought the dress.
My fingers touched the cold, hard plastic of the baby monitor receiver I had shoved into the pocket hours ago when I escaped the closet.
I didn't try to fight his hand on my throat anymore. Instead, I gripped the small black receiver. I felt for the volume dial, turning it all the way up, and then pressed my thumb hard against the large, rubber 'TALK' button on the side.
The house was wired with a massive, integrated smart-home speaker system. Ethan loved showing it off. The baby monitor was an older model, a two-way radio that transmitted on an open frequency.
I prayed the signal was strong enough to reach the base station in the nursery upstairs, which was plugged directly into the house's main audio interface.
I pressed the button, forced my eyes open, and stared directly into Ethan's furious gaze.
I couldn't speak, but I didn't have to.
I just let go of the button.
Immediately, the massive, high-fidelity speakers mounted in the ceiling of the garage—and in every room of the entire mansion—clicked on.
Ethan's own voice, recorded over the open frequency just minutes ago when the monitor was active in my pocket during his villainous monologue upstairs, blasted through the garage at maximum volume.
"...the trust will be in my name, and you will be locked in a ward where no one will ever believe a single word you say."
Ethan froze, his eyes widening in absolute shock. The grip on my throat loosened just a fraction.
The speakers crackled again.
"He's a means to an end. Do you have any idea the kind of pressure I've been under? The people I owe money to?"
The confession echoed off the concrete walls, deafening and undeniable.
Ethan stumbled backward, releasing me completely, staring up at the ceiling speakers as if they were demons coming to drag him to hell.
I collapsed against the wall, gasping violently for air, clutching my bruised throat.
"What did you do?!" Ethan screamed, turning back to me in a panic.
"The transport team... Dr. Aris..." Sarah stammered, backing away toward the garage door. "They're supposed to be pulling up to the house right now. If they hear that..."