Chapter 2
The police arrived before Vanessa reached the gate.
My guards held her outside under the portico while she screamed about assault, betrayal, and how I had ruined her life.
She said nothing about Sophie.
Not once.
Inside, I sat on the kitchen floor with my daughter wrapped in a blanket.
Sophie would not let go of me.
Every time footsteps sounded, she flinched.
That told me more than any statement could.
An officer crouched nearby.
“Can you tell me what happened, Sophie?”
She looked at me.
I nodded.
Her voice was so small I almost broke.
“Vanessa said bad girls eat like dogs.”
The officer’s face hardened.
“She put cereal in the bowl?”
Sophie nodded.
“And last night?”
Sophie’s fingers tightened in my shirt.
“She locked me in the pantry because I cried for Daddy.”
I closed my eyes.
I had been in Boston for one night.
One night.
Vanessa told me Sophie was asleep when I called.
She had sounded calm.
Sweet.
Loving.
I had believed her.
The officer asked if there were cameras.
“Yes,” I said.
My security chief, Marcus, had already pulled the footage.
I watched only ten seconds before rage made the room blur.
Vanessa dragging Sophie by the wrist.
Vanessa opening the pantry.
Sophie crying.
The door closing.
The lights going out.
I turned away.
Marcus looked sick.
“I should have seen it, sir.”
“No,” I said. “I should have.”
Sophie whispered, “Daddy mad?”
I lowered my face to hers.
“Not at you. Never at you.”
“Vanessa said you’d send me away.”
My chest tore open.
“Never.”
But even as I said it, my phone buzzed.
My mother.
I almost ignored it.
Then I answered.
“Richard,” she said sharply. “Vanessa called me. What have you done?”
I looked at the dog bowl.
May you like
Then at my daughter.
And I realized Vanessa had not acted alone.
