"I need to check if some chats and a voice recording are real or fake," Adriana said, handing over her phone.
The man nodded and sat down in front of a big computer. He connected her phone with a cable and clicked around quickly.
Adriana waited nervously, chewing the edge of her lip.
After about 30 minutes, the man turned to her.
"These are real," he said. "The messages weren't edited. The voice recording has no cuts or changes either."
Adriana felt like she had been punched in the stomach.
It was all true.
Everything Adeline said was real.
She stepped outside the shop, the sunlight too bright for her teary eyes.
She leaned against a wall and hugged herself. Her chest felt tight.
How could I have been so stupid? she thought. I loved a monster.
But Adriana wasn't the kind of person to just sit and cry.
She pulled out her phone again and called a private investigator she had once worked with on a story.
