For months, I felt like my husband had changed. They used to come home late, and always made excuses for endless business trips. At home, it was as if they lived in a parallel reality—near, yet distant. We had just found out that we were expecting a baby, and I hoped it would bring us closer. But the more I tried, the farther away they became.
One evening, my husband came home very late. Without saying anything, he took a quick shower and fell asleep almost immediately. I was lying next to him, fully awake, when I suddenly noticed: He rolled on his stomach. And there, under his neck, I saw a new tattoo. A barcode. Black lines on their skin.

I was stunned. My heart was beating so hard that I thought they would wake up. Why did he get the tattoo, and why didn’t he tell me? What did that mean?
I kept looking at those black stripes on his skin, not believing that he was really my husband. His breathing was calm, his eyes were closed, his face was calm—but now I knew: He was hiding a terrible secret from me.
With trembling hands I held my camera to his back. Click. And a link appeared on my phone’s screen. My heart sank as I pressed it. And then I discovered a terrible secret about my husband.
A closed website opened in front of me, with a sinister logo on it and read: “Property of the Total.” ”

My phone almost dropped. Which total? Which property?

The next morning, I couldn’t stop myself anymore. When he woke up, I sat quietly beside him, holding his shirt in my hands. He immediately understood that I knew. For a few seconds, he looked at me, and there was something in his eyes that I had never seen before—fear.

“I should have told you,” he said quietly. But I knew I was going to lose you.

I listened without interrupting.

It turned out that everything started a few months ago. That’s exactly when I told him about the baby. He was afraid that a normal job would not be enough for us.

Then an old acquaintance offered him a quick buck—”side work” for people who are better off ignorant.

Initially, these were small tasks: transporting goods, holding meetings, transporting packages. But one day he was given a choice: either he should become “one of them”, or… Disappear.

The tattoo wasn’t just a scar. It was a brand. A sign that he is now part of that gang. Barcode—their symbol: every line is like a price a man is willing to pay for his family.