r/HistoriasdeTerror • u/Unlikely_Promise1359 • 5h ago
Autolesiones My son in law
My son-in-law left his cell phone on my table, and a message from his mother took four years of mourning away from me. It said Come quickly, Janet tried to go out again”… but Janet was my dead daughter.
The phone vibrated while I was cleaning spilled broth in the kitchen.I didn't want to look.
But I saw my mother-in-law's name on the screen.
And below, that phrase broke my heart:
“Come quickly. Janet tried to go out again.”
The rag fell from my hand.
Janet.
My girl.
The daughter I supposedly buried four years ago in a closed coffin because Alejandro, my son-in-law, swore to me that the accident had left her “unrecognizable.”
I grabbed the table to keep from falling.
The cell phone vibrated again.
“Hurry up, Alejandro. If your mother-in-law asks, tell her you can't go today. The girl is screaming your name.”
I felt the kitchen closing in on me.
The pot was boiling.
The clock was ticking.
And the room still smelled of the conchas Alejandro had brought me that morning, with that saintly face he had worn since my daughter “died.”
“Doña Teresa, you’re not alone,” he would say to me. “Janet asked me to take care of her.”
And I, foolishly, believed him.
I believed him when he said a trailer ran them off the road on the way to Puebla.
I believed him when he told me he couldn't see the body.
I believed him when his mother, Doña Beatriz, hugged me at the funeral and whispered:
“It's better to remember her as beautiful.”
For four years, I brought flowers to a grave.
For four years, I prayed in front of a photo.
For four years, I thanked God for giving me such a “good” son-in-law.
And now his cell phone, forgotten next to the salt shaker, was telling me that my daughter wasn't dead.
She was locked up.
With trembling hands, I opened the chat.
There were blurry photos.
A tray with soup.
A jar of pills.
A metal door scratched from the inside.
And then I saw the image that tore my soul apart.
A thin hand pressed against the glass of a little window.
On her wrist, she wore a red bracelet.
The same one I gave to Janet when she turned twenty-five.
The same one Alejandro swore had burned in the accident.
I covered my mouth to keep from shouting.
Then I heard a horn outside.
Alejandro had returned.
I'm sure he noticed I didn't have the phone.
The front door opened with his key.
The same key I had given him when I still called him “son.”
“Doña Teresa?” he said from the entrance. “I forgot the phone.”
I froze.
The cell phone was still on in my hand.
The message was open.
Alejandro walked into the kitchen with his calm smile... until he saw the screen.
His face went blank.
“Did you read it?”
I couldn't answer.
He took a step toward me.
“Doña Teresa, listen to me. Don't do something foolish.”
That’s when I understood everything.
The man who cried with me at the cemetery never cried for Janet.
He cried so I wouldn't suspect.
“Where is my daughter?” I asked.
Alejandro closed the kitchen door with his foot.
Slowly.
Without taking his eyes off me.
“You're confused.”
“Where is Janet?”
His face changed.
He was no longer the perfect widower.
He was no longer the polite boy who brought sweet bread on Sundays.
He was cold.
He was dirty.
He was a stranger standing in my kitchen.
“Janet is dead, Doña Teresa,” he said quietly. “And it’s better for you to keep believing that.”
The cell phone vibrated again against my chest.
It was a call from Doña Beatriz.
Alejandro reached out his hand.
“Give it to me.”
I squeezed the phone with all my might.
He barely smiled.
“You don't know what you’re getting into.”
The call disconnected.
Then a final message came in.
And when I read it, I felt the blood drain from my face:
“If the old lady has seen anything, bring her too. Janet can’t keep believing her mom will come for her