Chapter 6
Officer Hernandez took the memory card from Sophie.
Linda immediately began shouting.
“That girl stole from me!”
“Ma’am, stop.”
“She broke into private property.”
Officer Hernandez turned to her partner.
“Keep Mrs. Carter over there.”
Linda tried to move toward Sophie again.
The younger officer blocked her.
Ryan stared at the girl.
“You’ve been upstairs for nine days?”
Sophie nodded.
“Where?”
“The attic room.”
“There is no attic room.”
Linda snapped, “Because she’s lying.”
Sophie looked at Ryan.
“There’s a door behind the linen cabinet.”
Ryan frowned.
I had lived in that house for three months.
I had never seen a door.
Officer Hernandez asked Sophie, “How old are you?”
“Seventeen.”
“Who are your parents?”
Sophie looked at David.
His face changed before she even answered.
“My mom is Rachel Mercer.”
David stumbled backward.
“What?”
Sophie’s chin trembled.
“Rachel is my mom.”
David looked like someone had punched him.
“My daughter?”
Sophie nodded.
Ryan stared between them.
“Rachel?”
I whispered, “Who is Rachel?”
David didn’t answer.
Linda did.
“His daughter.”
I looked at him.
“You have a daughter?”
David’s eyes remained fixed on Sophie.
“She disappeared fourteen years ago.”
Sophie’s face crumpled.
“She didn’t disappear.”
David’s breathing became ragged.
“Where is she?”
Sophie wiped her cheeks.
“She’s dead.”
The words hit the room like a gunshot.
David sat down hard.
“No.”
“I’m sorry.”
“No.”
Sophie looked at the floor.
“She died last year.”
David covered his face.
Ryan seemed stunned.
Even Linda looked uncomfortable for half a second.
Then her expression hardened again.
Officer Hernandez crouched slightly so she was closer to Sophie’s eye level.
“How did you end up here?”
Sophie looked at Linda.
“My mom gave me a letter before she died.”
“What kind of letter?”
“She told me if anything happened to her, I should find David Mercer.”
David lowered his hands.
Sophie looked at him.
“She said you were my grandfather.”
David started crying.
He didn’t make a sound.
Tears simply moved down his face.
“And Linda?” Officer Hernandez asked.
Sophie swallowed.
“My mom said Linda would know where to find you.”
Linda scoffed.
“Rachel was unstable.”
David stood so suddenly his chair fell backward.
“Don’t you dare.”
Officer Hernandez stepped between them.
David pointed at Linda.
“You told me Rachel ran away because she hated me.”
“She did.”
“You told me she wanted no contact.”
“She did.”
“You showed me letters.”
Linda went silent.
David’s face changed.
“You wrote them.”
Sophie began shaking.
“I found copies.”
David stared at her.
“Copies of what?”
“The letters Linda sent you.”
Linda shouted, “Enough!”
Officer Hernandez turned sharply.
“Sit down.”
“I will not be ordered around in my own house!”
The officer’s voice became hard.
“Sit down now.”
Linda sat.
Sophie continued.
“My mom kept everything.”
David could barely speak.
“Why didn’t she contact me?”
“She tried.”
His face broke.
“She said every letter came back.”
Linda stared at the wall.
I understood before David did.
He slowly turned toward her.
“You intercepted them.”
“No.”
“You intercepted my daughter’s letters.”
“David—”
“You stole fourteen years from me.”
His voice cracked.
“And now she’s dead.”
Linda looked away.
Victor finally spoke.
“Nothing has been established.”
Officer Hernandez looked at him.
“Mr. Hale, I strongly suggest you stop inserting yourself.”
“I am counsel for Mrs. Carter.”
“Then counsel her to remain quiet.”
Victor’s jaw tightened.
Sophie wiped her nose with her sleeve.
“I came here because Mom said there were papers proving what happened.”
“What happened to what?” I asked.
“To Grandpa Walter’s money.”
David looked up.
Sophie nodded toward Linda.
“She knew I was Rachel’s daughter when I showed up.”
Linda said nothing.
“She told me David was dangerous,” Sophie continued. “She said he killed my mother.”
David’s face went white.
“What?”
“I didn’t believe her.”
“Why?”
“Because Mom’s letter said the opposite.”
Sophie looked at him.
“She said you were the only person in the family who ever tried to protect her.”
David turned away, overcome.
Ryan sat on the arm of the couch.
This family was collapsing around him.
And for once, he had no explanation.
Officer Hernandez asked, “Why did Linda let you stay here?”
“She said she would help me find David.”
Linda laughed bitterly.
“She was a homeless teenager.”
Sophie looked at her.
“You took my phone.”
“For your protection.”
“You locked the attic door at night.”
I felt my stomach twist.
Officer Hernandez’s expression sharpened.
“She locked you in?”
Sophie nodded.
“I could open it from inside during the day. At night she put a chair under the outside handle.”
Linda jumped up.
“That is ridiculous.”
Her partner moved toward her.
“Sit.”
“She was sneaking around!”
Officer Hernandez asked Sophie, “Were you prevented from leaving?”
“Yes.”
“How long?”
“Since I got here.”
Linda looked at Victor.
He gave the smallest shake of his head.
Do not talk.
Too late.
Sophie continued.
“Yesterday Linda and Victor left together. I heard them talking downstairs first.”
“What did they say?”
Sophie glanced at me.
“They were talking about Emma.”
My hands went cold.
“They said you had six weeks left.”
Ryan looked at me.
Sophie continued.
“Victor said the cleanest option was getting you to sign a separation agreement.”
“What if I refused?”
“Linda said she could make you explode.”
I felt sick.
“She said everyone explodes eventually if you push the right buttons.”
Ryan closed his eyes.
“She planned the fight.”
Sophie nodded.
“They wanted Ryan to come home while it was happening.”
I turned toward him.
“What time were you supposed to come home?”
He looked confused.
“Later.”
“How much later?”
“Around four.”
The attack happened just after noon.
Ryan had come home early.
That meant Linda hadn’t expected him yet.
Or had she?
“Why did you come home early?” I asked.
Ryan frowned.
“Mom texted me.”
Silence.
“What did she say?”
He took out his phone.
Scrolled.
Then his face changed.
He showed me.
11:47 A.M.
MOM:
Emma is losing it again. Please come home before she does something crazy.
The attack started less than ten minutes later.
I stared at him.
“You received that before she touched me.”
Ryan looked devastated.
“Yes.”
“You came because she told you I was already violent.”
“Yes.”
“And then when you walked in and saw her holding me…”
I couldn’t finish.
Ryan whispered, “I believed her.”
That hurt more than the mop water.
More than the lawyer.
More than the money.
Because he finally said it.
He had seen the truth with his own eyes and chosen the lie he had been prepared to believe.
Officer Hernandez asked to see the message.
Ryan handed over the phone.
Linda whispered, “I was scared.”
I turned toward her.
“You were preparing him.”
She didn’t answer.
“You texted him before you attacked me so that when he walked in, he would already think I was the aggressor.”
Linda’s mouth tightened.
“You poured a bucket over my head.”
“Because I snapped.”
“Yes.”
Her eyes hardened.
“And that is exactly what we needed.”
Victor whispered, “Linda.”
She looked at him.
Then realized what she had said.
Officer Hernandez’s head lifted.
“What did you just say?”
Linda stood motionless.
Sophie gasped.
Ryan stared at his mother.
I felt a cold wave move through my body.
Officer Hernandez stepped closer.
“What did you need?”
Linda’s eyes darted toward Victor.
He said, “My client is done speaking.”
But it was too late.
The officer turned to her partner.
“Separate Mr. Hale and Mrs. Carter.”
Victor protested.
“On what grounds?”
“So I can continue investigating without you coaching a witness.”
“I am her lawyer.”
“And potentially a witness.”
His face darkened.
The younger officer guided him toward the porch.
Linda stayed in the dining room.
Officer Hernandez looked at Sophie.
“Can you show me the attic?”
Sophie nodded.
We followed her upstairs.
At the end of the hallway sat a tall linen cabinet built into the wall.
Sophie pushed it aside.
Behind it was a narrow door.
Ryan whispered, “What the hell?”
David looked stunned.
I remembered Linda constantly telling me not to reorganize the upstairs hallway.
Now I knew why.
Officer Hernandez opened the door.
A narrow staircase climbed upward.
At the top was a small finished room.
A mattress.
Blankets.
Empty water bottles.
A lamp.
And a chair.
The chair was positioned near the outside of the attic door.
Exactly where Sophie said Linda used it.
Officer Hernandez photographed everything.
Then Sophie pointed toward a desk.
“That laptop is hers.”
Linda shouted from downstairs.
“DO NOT TOUCH THAT COMPUTER!”
Everyone froze.
Officer Hernandez looked down the stairwell.
Then back at the laptop.
“That computer belongs to Linda?”
Sophie nodded.
“She used it in here.”
“Why?”
“She said Ryan and Emma never come up here.”
Ryan stared at the laptop.
I could see the fear growing in his face.
Officer Hernandez didn’t open it.
She called someone.
Asked for a supervisor.
Asked about securing electronic evidence.
David sat beside Sophie on the mattress.
He looked at her like he was afraid she would disappear.
“Did your mother ever tell you about me?”
Sophie nodded.
“All the time.”
He smiled through tears.
“Good things?”
“Mostly.”
He laughed once.
She smiled weakly.
Then she reached into her pocket again.
“I have something else.”
Linda screamed from downstairs.
“SOPHIE, STOP!”
The girl flinched.
David stood between her and the door.
Sophie pulled out a folded envelope.
Old.
Creased.
She handed it to David.
“My mom said this belonged to you.”
David opened it.
Inside was a photograph.
A young David.
A teenage Rachel.
Walter Carter.
And Linda.
All standing outside the same house.
On the back, someone had written:
If anything happens to Rachel, look at Linda’s accounts. She knows why Rachel left.
David read it.
Then turned the photograph around.
“What does that mean?”
Sophie shook her head.
“I don’t know.”
But I noticed something.
A handwritten date in the corner.
Fourteen years earlier.
The exact week Rachel supposedly disappeared.
I looked at David.
“Your daughter didn’t leave because she hated you.”
His eyes filled again.
“No.”
I looked downstairs, where Linda was shouting at the officers.
“She left because she discovered something.”
Sophie nodded.
“My mom said she found out where the first missing money went.”
David’s face went still.
“Where?”
Sophie swallowed.
“Into an account with Ryan’s name on it.”
Ryan looked like the floor had vanished beneath him.
“My name?”
May you like
She nodded.
“And according to Mom’s letter, you were never supposed to know it existed.”
