After dinner, my husband locked my son and me in the room, but the stranger who came to the door suddenly turned pale

That evening my husband brought dinner to the table with such a calm face that a few minutes later I could not believe my own ears when he said: “Soon neither of you will be here anymore.”

He said these words quietly into the phone while my fourteen-year-old son Luka and I were lying unconscious on the kitchen floor. Or, at least, that is what he thought.

Ten minutes earlier, the clinking of plates could be heard in the kitchen. November rain struck the windowpanes, while the smell of onions and fried meat stood in the room. My husband, Davit, was smiling more than usual.

“Today’s dinner is special,” he told me and put food onto my plate with a large spoon.

“Why aren’t you sitting down?” I asked.

“You start first. I’ll bring the wine.”

Luka looked at me. His palms were cold under the table. At the time I blamed it on tiredness.

When I swallowed the first bite, I felt a bitter taste on my tongue. After the second bite, the room seemed to begin slowly spinning. I grabbed the back of the chair.

“Mom, are you all right?” Luka asked.

“It’s probably my blood pressure…”

Then my head fell onto the table.

In the next seconds my body turned into a heavy stone, but I did not lose consciousness. My eyes were closed and I could barely control my breathing. Davit stopped beside me, then picked up his phone.

“It’s already finished,” he told someone. “Soon neither of them will be here anymore. Wait outside. I’ll let you know.”

Cold passed through my stomach.

Davit left the room. Then my fingers touched Luka’s fingers. Once. Twice.

“Mom, don’t move,” he whispered, barely audibly.

His voice was alive.

Footsteps returned from the corridor. I immediately stiffened my hand and put my head back on the table. Davit appeared in the doorway and watched us for a long time, as if he wanted to check death.

First he approached Luka, then me. He took our phones from the table and put them in his pocket. Then he took my keys.

“It will be over very soon,” he muttered.

Luka moved the tip of his foot slightly. I did not open my eyes.

Davit took my son’s backpack and put it by the entrance door. That confused me most of all. If he intended to kill both of us, why had he prepared Luka’s things?

He left the kitchen again. A few seconds later, a second call came.

“Wait for me outside,” he said. “Come in when I tell you.”

Then fear changed its face. Perhaps he was not planning both deaths. Perhaps he wanted to take only one of us.

When I heard the door lock, I opened my eyes. Luka also sat up, but his legs gave way and he leaned on the chair.

“Don’t stand up,” I whispered. “What did you feel?”

“I ate a little. I hid the rest in my mouth and spat it out.”

Hope and fear burst together in my heart.

“Did you see anything?”

Luka looked toward the table.

“Before you left the kitchen, Dad moved my plate. Then he put his own plate aside and did not touch it at all.”

Davit’s plate really stood untouched. The food on it was covered with a cover.

A voice sounded from outside.

“Davit, are you ready?”

Luka came toward me, frightened.

“He thinks I passed out too.”

It was then that I realized we were not alone in the house. I looked toward the exit. Davit had my phone and keys, but the backpack lying by the door was within reach.

Luka picked it up. The bag turned out to be unusually heavy.

“I didn’t put this many things in it, Mom.”

We opened the lock. Clothes lay on top, and below them were things Luka had never taken out of the house. I put my hand into the front pocket and found two travel tickets. Both were for that same night. One was in Davit’s name, the other in Luka’s name.

I did not have a third ticket.

Luka looked at my face and suddenly said quietly:

“Mom, there is something else here…”

His hand moved toward the inner seam of the bag…

His fingers stopped at the inner seam. Luka took out a small folded napkin and put it in my palm.

“I hid this from dinner,” he told me. “It is a piece of food.”

I recognized the smell immediately, but it was not enough. Davit’s footsteps approached behind the door.

“Hide it,” I whispered.

Luka stuffed the napkin into his sock. We both lay down on the floor again.

Davit entered, checked our faces, and put the phone to his ear.

“Yes, both are unconscious,” he said. “I’ll take the boy now. The woman will stay here.”

My blood froze.

As soon as he left, I grabbed Luka’s hand.

“We’re going to the door. Slowly.”

My legs barely obeyed me, but I leaned on Luka’s shoulder. I took the tickets from the backpack and hid them in my coat pocket. Then I noticed that the destination on the second ticket was a city where Davit had lived years earlier.

I put my hand on the door handle.

The lock was locked from outside.

Luka looked at me in fear.

“Mom, Dad doesn’t want to escape from us. He wants only me to go.”

At that moment something rattled in the lower pocket of the bag. Luka opened the zipper and took out a small memory card.

On its surface, one word was written in my handwriting: “Evidence.”

I had never written that word…

The word written on its surface was so familiar that for several seconds I forgot even to breathe. The letters truly looked like my handwriting, but I had never seen this card in my life.

Luka pushed it into my hand.

“Mom, what evidence is this about?”

“I don’t know. But Davit does not want us to find this.”

The entrance door moved again. A key was turning from outside. We quickly turned and rushed into the kitchen. Luka hid behind a chair, while I leaned against the cabinet. Davit entered together with an unfamiliar man. The stranger wore a black hat and held a small suitcase in his hand.

“They still haven’t woken up?” he asked.

“No,” Davit answered. “We’ll inject the boy with medicine and take him to the station. We’ll deal with the woman later.”

Nervousness sounded in the stranger’s voice.

“You said both of them were supposed to disappear.”

“The plan changed.”

I recorded their conversation with a phone. I no longer had the phone, but several weeks earlier I had hidden a small voice recorder in the kitchen. I suspected Davit because he often lied to us about money. The device was still behind the cabinet.

Luka signaled to me with his eyes. I slowly bent down and took the recorder.

The stranger opened the bag. Just then Luka jumped to his feet and slammed the door with all his strength. The man screamed. I crashed into Davit, knocked the keys from his hand, and Luka picked them up from the floor.

“Run!” I shouted.

We went out into the yard and ran to our neighbor Marina. She opened the door for us immediately and called the police.

In twenty minutes law-enforcement officers were in the house. Davit did not manage to escape. The stranger injured his leg while jumping through the back window.

At the hospital the doctor took Luka’s blood. Several hours later they brought the results. There was a strong sleeping substance in the food, in a dose that would have stopped a child’s breathing.

“Your husband could not have done this accidentally,” the doctor said.

I turned on the recording. Davit’s own voice sounded in the room.

“I’ll take the boy. I’ll leave the woman here. The money will come from both of their insurance policies.”

Davit sank into a chair.

“That is a lie,” he whispered.

“It is your voice,” I told him.

But the stranger looked at me for the first time.

“You do not know who you are dealing with. Davit was not acting alone.”

At that very moment the police officer’s phone rang. He listened, turned pale, and looked at Davit.

“Ma’am, the card found in your house is only the beginning. The file says that your son’s birth certificate was forged and that Luka’s real name is different…”

I looked at Luka. Davit lowered his head. And the next sentence coming from the phone made every sound in the room disappear…