Chapter 1 - GRANDMA OPENED THE WRONG CABINET
By the time the ambulance doors closed around Sophie, Alejandro Rivers thought the worst thing he would face that night was pneumonia.
He was wrong.
Because forty minutes later, his mother walked into his house and found something no grandmother should ever have to find.
Elena Rivers had driven from Fort Worth the moment Alejandro called.
She was sixty-three, silver-haired, sharp-eyed, and still carried herself with the quiet authority of the elementary school principal she had been for nearly thirty years.
She had never completely trusted Valerie.
She had never accused her of anything either.
There was a difference.
When Elena entered the Rivers home, Valerie was nowhere downstairs.
“Elena?”
Valerie appeared at the top of the staircase wearing a cream sweater and black pants.
Her face looked exhausted.
Or carefully arranged to look exhausted.
“Where’s Sophie?”
“At the hospital.”
“I know that.”
Elena set her purse down.
“I’m asking why you’re here instead of with her.”
Valerie blinked.
“Alejandro asked me to get some clothes for Sophie.”
“He called me twenty minutes ago.”
Elena looked around.
“He said you weren’t answering your phone.”
“I was upstairs.”
Valerie forced a smile.
“I’m a little overwhelmed.”
Elena said nothing.
She walked toward Sophie’s room.
Valerie followed.
“What are you doing?”
“Getting my granddaughter’s things.”
“I can do that.”
“I know.”
Elena opened Sophie’s closet.
“That’s what worries me.”
Valerie’s smile vanished.
Elena packed pajamas, socks, Sophie’s pink blanket, and the stuffed rabbit she had owned since she was four.
Then she noticed a tablet beneath the edge of the bed.
It wasn’t Sophie’s usual tablet.
This one had a dark blue case.
“Elena.”
Valerie’s voice sharpened.
“That’s mine.”
Elena picked it up.
“I thought yours was downstairs.”
“I have two.”
Valerie reached for it.
Elena pulled it back.
The screen lit.
No password.
A paused video appeared.
Elena almost handed the device back.
Then she saw Sophie.
Her granddaughter was sitting on the edge of the bed.
The date in the corner was from six days earlier.
Valerie stood in front of her.
Elena touched the screen.
The video began.
Sophie’s voice was barely audible.
“My stomach hurts.”
Valerie crossed her arms.
“You said that yesterday.”
“Can I call Daddy?”
“No.”
“Please?”
“No.”
Sophie looked toward the door.
“I want my dad.”
Valerie leaned closer.
“Your dad has a company to run.”
Sophie lowered her eyes.
“Stop making everything about you.”
Elena’s fingers tightened around the tablet.
Valerie lunged forward.
“Give me that.”
Elena stepped back.
“No.”
“Elena, you’re taking something completely out of context.”
“Then explain the context.”
“It was a difficult morning.”
The video continued.
Valerie placed a glass on the nightstand.
Sophie shook her head.
“I don’t want it.”
“Drink.”
“It makes my stomach hurt.”
“Drink it.”
“No.”
Valerie’s voice became colder.
“If you make me call your father home again, he’s going to get tired of you.”
Sophie froze.
Valerie lowered her voice.
“You already lost one family.”
Elena stopped the video.
For several seconds, she couldn’t speak.
Then she looked at Valerie.
“You told an eight-year-old orphan that?”
Valerie’s face had gone pale.
“You don’t understand.”
“No.”
Elena’s voice trembled.
“I understand perfectly.”
Valerie moved toward the tablet.
Elena stepped into the hallway.
“Stay away from me.”
“Elena—”
“Stay away.”
Something in Elena’s voice stopped her.
Then Elena remembered what Alejandro had told her on the phone.
The medicine.
She walked into the upstairs bathroom.
Valerie followed immediately.
“What are you doing now?”
Elena opened the medicine cabinet.
Cough syrup.
Children’s pain reliever.
Bandages.
Vitamins.
Nothing unusual.
Then she noticed a prescription bottle shoved behind a box of cotton swabs.
She pulled it out.
SOPHIE RIVERS.
The label belonged to the antibiotics Dr. Harris had prescribed.
Elena shook the bottle.
Nearly full.
Valerie had told Alejandro Sophie finished them.
Elena slowly turned.
Valerie was standing in the doorway.
Neither woman spoke.
Then Elena noticed another bottle.
The label had been partially peeled away.
It was not prescribed to Sophie.
Elena reached for it.
Valerie suddenly grabbed her wrist.
“Don’t.”
Elena looked down at Valerie’s hand.
Then up at her face.
“Take your hand off me.”
Valerie released her.
Elena picked up the bottle.
There was enough of the original label left to read two words.
Veterinary use.
Elena’s stomach dropped.
“What is this doing beside Sophie’s medicine?”
Valerie stared at her.
Then she smiled.
Not warmly.
Not nervously.
Coldly.
“You should have stayed at the hospital.”
Elena backed into the hallway with the tablet and both bottles.
Valerie stepped toward her.
Elena immediately lifted her phone.
“I already called Alejandro.”
Valerie stopped.
That was a lie.
But Valerie didn’t know it.
Elena walked downstairs without turning her back.
The moment she reached her car, she locked the doors.
Then she called her son.
“Alejandro.”
Her voice broke.
“You need to listen to me very carefully.”
At Baylor University Medical Center, Alejandro stood beside Sophie’s hospital bed.
“What happened?”
Elena looked back toward the house.
Valerie was standing behind an upstairs window.
Watching her.
“I found the antibiotics.”
Alejandro went silent.
“The bottle is almost full.”
“What?”
“And I found something else.”
Elena looked at the tablet on the passenger seat.
“Alejandro, I think Sophie was telling you the truth about everything.”
His voice dropped.
“What did Valerie do?”
Elena swallowed.
“I don’t know yet.”
Then she stared at the second bottle.
“But we’re going to find out.”
And upstairs inside the house, Valerie picked up her phone and made one call.
When the person answered, she spoke only six words.
“They found it.”
A pause.
May you like
Then Valerie whispered,
“We need to move tonight.”
