Chapter 1The Broadcast

I discovered that my husband had secretly bought a voice recorder.

When I asked about it, he exploded immediately:

"It's for work! Why are you interrogating me?"

"If you're so bored, go find a job!"

I didn't argue.

I simply swapped the recorder's internal memory card for a micro-transmitter.

The next day, he took his mistress to his car for a thrill.

Every word they said was transmitted via Bluetooth...

Directly to the massive speakers used for the neighborhood Zumba class.

* * *

Mrs. Robinson, the Zumba instructor, was about to change the song when Dance Monkey cut off abruptly.

Replacing it was a burst of harsh static, followed by sounds that made everyone blush, blasting from the high-wattage outdoor speakers.

"Caleb... gentle..."

A coquettish female voice, amplified by the heavy bass, rolled like thunder across the entire community square.

Hundreds of retirees stretching their arms and legs froze mid-motion, like someone had pressed the pause button.

Following that was Caleb's familiar voice, dripping with a greasy arrogance I had never heard before:

"Scared of what? This car has great soundproofing. That yellow-faced woman is still at home like an idiot, waiting for me to 'work late'."

Dead silence fell over the square.

Only the unbearable sounds from the speakers continued, wave after wave, clear as if they were whispering in our ears.

Mrs. Robinson stood stunned for a few seconds, her fan dropping to the ground with a clatter.

She was closest to the speaker; the sound made her heart palpitate.

"This... whose couple is this, leaving their windows open?" someone in the crowd muttered.

"Couple? Listen to those words. That's an affair!"

I sat on a bench at the edge of the square, pulling the brim of my baseball cap low, clutching the receiver's control unit in my hand.

I watched the black BMW X5 with dark tinted windows parked not far away. The car was rocking in rhythm with the sounds from the speaker.

The conversation continued, getting even more explosive.

"So when are you going to divorce her? I don't want to keep sneaking around like this."

"Soon, soon," Caleb's voice carried a ruthless edge.

"That idiot is trying to get pregnant recently, forcing me to take vitamins every day. She doesn't know I swapped her bottle of prenatal vitamins for long-term contraceptives ages ago. I even added a little 'extra spice'."

"As long as she can't conceive and her health collapses, my mom will naturally force her out."

If people were just watching for the drama before, this sentence changed the atmosphere in the square completely.

The seniors, who had been whispering, now had faces of iron.

Everyone there had children.

Who could stomach such a conscience-less, evil scheme?

"Is he even human? Poisoning his wife?"

"That's wicked! That's trying to kill someone!"

Listening to the curses around me, I dug my nails deep into my palms but felt no pain.

So that was it. That was why my health had deteriorated over the last two years, why I had unexplained bleeding. It was all thanks to him.

Rage boiled in my blood, but I had to stay calm.