Chapter 4
I stared at Sophie’s name on the ticket.
For a moment, I could not breathe.
“Where were they going?”
Officer Collins examined the confirmation page.
“Belize.”
My mother grabbed the doorframe.
“Why would Amanda take Sophie?”
I already knew the answer.
Leverage.
If Amanda controlled my daughter, she controlled me.
I looked through the box with gloved hands.
There were copies of my financial records, photographs of my signature, and a handwritten list of security questions for every major account I owned.
Sophie’s favorite food.
My first car.
The hospital where she was born.
Amanda had turned our life into a catalog of answers.
At the bottom was an envelope marked AFTER CEREMONY.
Inside was a typed letter supposedly written by me.
It said I had become overwhelmed by grief after losing my first wife, Grace. It said I was leaving the country voluntarily and giving Amanda full authority over Sophie and my property.
My name was signed at the bottom.
“That isn’t my signature,” I said.
Officer Collins studied it.
“It looks convincing.”
“It’s forged.”
“We’ll send it for analysis.”
Sophie had followed us upstairs with my mother.
When she saw the metal box, she stopped.
“I’m sorry.”
I knelt beside her.
“For what?”
“Amanda told me never to touch that.”
“You didn’t do anything wrong.”
She pointed toward the closet.
“She kept Mommy’s necklace in there.”
My chest tightened.
Grace had owned a small gold locket with Sophie’s newborn photograph inside.
It disappeared six months earlier.
Amanda claimed a cleaner must have stolen it.
We searched the box again.
The locket was not there.
“Did you see it recently?” I asked.
Sophie nodded.
“Amanda wore it when Uncle Ryan came over.”
My mother made a broken sound.
I stood too quickly.
Rage blurred my vision.
Officer Collins blocked the doorway.
“Do not go looking for your brother.”
“He was wearing my dead wife’s necklace with Amanda?”
“Let us find him.”
I wanted Ryan in front of me.
I wanted answers.
But Sophie was watching.
I forced my fists open.
Officer Collins took my statement while another officer collected evidence.
Amanda called me from the county jail that evening.
I almost refused the call.
Then I thought about the plane tickets.
“What were you going to do with Sophie?”
Amanda’s voice sounded calm.
“Nothing.”
“You bought a ticket in her name.”
“For a family vacation.”
“You planned to leave without me.”
“You were supposed to join us later.”
“Your forged letter says I left voluntarily.”
Silence.
Then she laughed softly.
“Ryan told me you would notice details once it was too late.”
Hearing my brother’s name from her mouth hurt more than I expected.
“How long?”
“Does it matter?”
“How long have you been sleeping with him?”
She paused.
“Since before you proposed.”
I looked across the living room.
Sophie slept with her head on my mother’s lap.
The red mark on her cheek had darkened.
“You never loved me.”
“I loved what you could give me.”
“And Sophie?”
“She was always the obstacle.”
My grip tightened around the phone.
“If you ever come near her again—”
“You’ll do what? Cancel our wedding twice?”
I heard Cynthia whispering near her.
Amanda lowered her voice.
“You should ask your mother why Ryan hates you.”
The line disconnected.
I turned to Margaret.
She had heard enough to understand.
“What does she mean?”
My mother went pale.
“This is not the time.”
“It became the time when Ryan helped plan my disappearance.”
Sophie stirred.
My mother carried her to bed.
When she returned, I was still standing beside the window.
“Tell me.”
She sat down slowly.
“Your father left Ryan a letter before he died.”
“My father left both of us letters.”
“No. Ryan received another one.”
“What did it say?”
My mother twisted her wedding ring.
“It said the house was supposed to belong to him.”
I stared at her.
“That makes no sense. Grace bought this house with money from her inheritance.”
“Not this house.”
“Then which house?”
“The lake property.”
I felt another shock.
Our father’s lake house had been sold eight years earlier to pay Ryan’s gambling debts.
Ryan had begged us not to tell anyone.
I paid the remaining debt and never asked him to repay me.
“Dad wanted Ryan to inherit a property that no longer existed?”
“He believed you forced the sale.”
“I saved Ryan from prosecution.”
“I know.”
“Does Ryan?”
Her silence answered me.
“You let him believe I stole his inheritance?”
“I thought protecting him from the truth would keep the family together.”
I laughed once, without humor.
“It taught him to hate me.”
My mother began crying.
“I was trying to save my son.”
“You had two sons.”
A knock interrupted us.
Detective Elena Ruiz introduced herself and handed me a protective order application.
Then she gave me worse news.
Amanda had been released on bail.
Her mother had paid it.
“She cannot contact you or Sophie,” Ruiz said.
“Does she have her passport?”
“We confiscated the one in her purse.”
“What about another one?”
“We’re checking.”
My phone vibrated.
A security alert appeared from Sophie’s bedroom window.
I opened the camera feed.
A hooded figure stood outside the glass.
May you like
The figure raised one hand.
Grace’s gold locket dangled from its fingers.
