A DRIVER IS SUDDENLY CALLED A HOLDAPER AFTER A BUSINESSMAN WHO WAS RIDING HIS VEHICLE DISAPPEARS, BUT THE TRUE STORY IS HIDDEN IN A VOICE RECORDING LEFT BEHIND THE SEAT AND WILL CHANGE THE LIVES OF ALL WHO HEAR IT

It was ten o’clock at night when Arman accepted the booking in Quezon City. The rain was heavy, the road was barely visible due to the amount of water falling on the windshield. It was his fourth trip, and he was planning to go home to his wife and six-year-old son.

The passenger: Victor Lazo. He was wearing an expensive watch, carrying a leather attaché case, and was clearly irritable.

“Quickly, brother. I have a meeting to catch up on,” he ordered as he slammed the door shut.

Arman was silent. He was used to this kind of passenger—the one in a hurry, the one with a hot head, who thinks he owns the world.

As they were cruising along EDSA, Arman noticed Victor talking on the phone. The few words were faint but clear.

“Can’t miss. I have the money… Yes, all in cash.”

Arman was momentarily nervous. Money? Cash? But he ignored it. Just work.

When they reached a dark part of the road near an empty lot, Victor suddenly spoke.

“This way. Stop.”

“Sir, there’s not much light—”

“This way!”

Arman stopped. Victor got out without looking back. But Arman noticed something—the attaché case was left behind.

He was about to open the door to call the passenger, but suddenly two men in hoodies emerged from the darkness. They approached Victor.

In the rearview mirror, he saw the commotion. There was an argument. There was a scuffle.

And then—a loud bang.

Arman ducked in fear. When he looked again, Victor was gone. The two men were gone too.

It was as if cold water had been poured over his body.

The next day, the news went viral: “BUSINESSMAN, MISSING AFTER RIDING ON RIDE-HAILING APP.”

Arman was even more depressed when he saw his own face on TV. He was the last to see Victor.

He was called a suspect.

The police went to him. They took the dashcam, the phone records, everything. He insisted he had nothing to do with it. But how could he prove it?

At the precinct, he could barely look at his wife crying. “I’m not a holdaper,” he said over and over.

Three days passed. Still no body. Still no clear lead.

While in the garage, his wife was cleaning the car—hoping to find something useful. That’s when they noticed the small digital voice recorder tucked under the seat.

It wasn’t Arman’s.

His hand was shaking as he pressed play.

Page: SAY – Story Around You | Original story

“Are you sure no one will know?” it was Victor’s voice.

Another voice followed. “Relax. If you disappear, it will appear as if the driver robbed you. Just get your insurance, we’ll win.”

Arman paused.

The recording continued.

“I’ll disappear. I’ll fly tomorrow using a private charter. To Cayman first. After six months, I’ll be back. Tell the media, I have enemies in business. Let’s use that.”

Victor laughed.

“I’m sorry to the driver. Collateral damage.”

Arman’s world seemed to collapse. It wasn’t a holdup. He wasn’t the target—he was just being used.

They immediately took the recorder to the police.

During the investigation, a deeper plan was uncovered. Victor was deep in debt. The company was losing money. His insurance policy? Almost fifty million.

The two men in hoodies? His men.

The gunshot? Blank cartridge.

The disappearance? Scripted.

But something was wrong.

Victor had not left the country.

CCTV of a private airstrip in Pampanga showed him arriving—but never leaving.

Three weeks after that recording, a body was found in an abandoned warehouse. Victor.

He was killed by his own accomplices.

According to the investigation, there was a dispute over the division of the money. They didn’t like the plan for Victor to hide alone in another country while they faced danger. So before the staged disappearance could be carried out, they stayed overnight.

That news cleared Arman’s name.

At a press conference, he was officially exonerated. The ride-hailing company apologized. Some netizens apologized for the false accusation.

But the three weeks of hell can’t be undone.

One night, while his family was eating quietly, his son asked him.

“Dad, is that a bad guy who gave you a ride?”

He thought about it.

“He’s not just a bad guy,” Arman replied. “He was scared. And because of his fear, some people got involved.”

After a few months, everything went back to normal. But there was one thing that never disappeared—Arman’s care for every passenger he picked up.

Because sometimes, you never know when a simple “Stop right there,”

is the beginning of a plan that can destroy your life.

And if it weren’t for the small voice recorder left behind in the back of the seat, he might have been called a holdaper for life.

In the end, the man who planned his own disappearance was the one who disappeared—while the person he made a scapegoat survived and moved on.

It was just a trip on a rainy night.

But for Arman, that was the night that everything almost ended—because of a passenger who wanted to escape his own downfall.