Chapter 4
A social worker named Maren sat with us in the hospital.
She gave Sophie dolls.
Sophie put one doll in a box.
Then she put another doll outside the box.
“What is that doll doing?” Maren asked.
“Laughing,” Sophie said.
My chest tightened.
Maren looked at me.
“Mr. Reed, your daughter has been living in fear.”
“I know.”
But I had not known enough.
That was the part that destroyed me.
I called Laura’s sister, Megan.
She arrived before dawn, hair messy, eyes blazing.
When she saw Sophie’s scalp, she covered her mouth.
Then she looked at me.
“I told you Rachel was wrong.”
I lowered my head.
“I know.”
“No. You didn’t listen.”
Her words were deserved.
I took them.
Megan brought a box from Laura.
“She left this with me,” she said. “She told me to give it to you if Rachel ever became too close.”
I opened the box.
Letters.
A flash drive.
Legal papers.
My hands went numb.
One envelope had my name.
Daniel,
If grief blinds you, let this wake you. Anyone who resents Sophie for being mine will hurt her where you least expect.
I pressed the letter to my mouth.
Laura had known.
She had tried to protect Sophie after death.
And I had married the woman she feared.
Then Megan handed me another document.
“Sophie has a trust,” she said.
I looked up.
“What trust?”
May you like
Megan’s face hardened.
“The one Rachel has been trying to get.”
