Chapter 12 - SOPHIE WAS THE TARGET
I ran downstairs.
Sophie was safe.
She sat in a quiet conference room with Officer Keller, coloring a horse on hotel stationery.
When she saw me, she stood.
“Mom?”
I pulled her into my arms.
Too tight.
“Ow.”
“Sorry.”
“Did you find out about Daddy?”
I looked over her shoulder at Keller.
Not here.
Not now.
“Yes.”
Sophie searched my face.
“Was Uncle Preston bad?”
Children have a way of asking questions adults spend years avoiding.
“Yes.”
Her chin trembled.
“Really bad?”
I nodded.
She hugged me.
Then whispered, “I knew he didn’t like me.”
I pulled back.
“What?”
She looked embarrassed.
“He said I talk too much.”
“When?”
“Sometimes.”
“How often were you alone with him?”
She shrugged.
“At Grandma’s.”
My mother was standing in the doorway.
Her face collapsed.
“Sophie…”
Sophie didn’t look at her.
“What did he say?” I asked.
“He asked if Daddy ever told me secrets.”
My blood turned cold.
“What secrets?”
“I said I didn’t know.”
“Did he ask anything else?”
She nodded.
“If Daddy gave me a box.”
A box.
I stared at her.
“Sophie, did he?”
She frowned.
Then her eyes widened.
“Oh.”
“What?”
“The treasure box.”
My heart started pounding.
After Daniel died, Sophie had kept a shoebox filled with little things that reminded her of him.
Movie tickets.
A broken watch.
Birthday cards.
A wooden keychain.
We had moved it to a storage unit when we downsized apartments.
“What was in it?”
“I don’t know. Daddy gave it to me before he went out.”
The room tilted.
“What did he say?”
Sophie thought hard.
“He said, ‘This is our grown-up secret.’”
I crouched.
“What did the box look like?”
“Blue.”
Not the shoebox.
Something else.
Mom whispered, “Rachel.”
I turned.
“What?”
Her eyes filled with dread.
“After Daniel died, Preston helped you clean out the house.”
I remembered.
I had barely been able to stand.
Preston had packed Daniel’s office.
He had volunteered.
He had been so helpful.
So loving.
So full of lies.
“But he never found it,” I said.
Because if he had, he wouldn’t still be asking Sophie.
Ruiz entered.
“We need to move you both somewhere secure tonight.”
“Why?”
“Harris is talking.”
My stomach tightened.
“What did he say?”
Ruiz looked at Sophie, then back at me.
“He says Preston didn’t frame her just to distract you.”
My fingers went numb.
“He wanted Sophie removed from the ballroom.”
“Why?”
May you like
“Because someone was supposed to search her things.”
And suddenly I knew exactly what they were looking for.
