Chapter 2 - WHERE SOPHIE FIRST WALKED
Blackwood Manor had forty-three rooms.
But Ethan knew exactly where Amelia meant.
The sunroom.
Sophie had taken her first steps there.
Ethan could still see it.
Amelia kneeling on the rug.
Sophie wobbling toward her with both arms raised.
Sunlight pouring through the enormous windows.
Amelia laughing as their daughter collapsed into her arms.
It had been one of the happiest moments of Ethan’s life.
Now the memory felt like a message from the dead.
He carried Sophie down the hallway.
Celeste followed.
Richard stayed several feet behind.
“Ethan, this is insane,” Celeste said.
Ethan ignored her.
At the sunroom door, Sophie pointed toward a built-in cabinet beneath the windows.
“Mommy said there.”
Ethan set her down.
He knelt beside the cabinet.
There was no visible lock.
No keyhole.
Richard entered the room.
“You’re chasing a dead woman’s paranoia.”
Ethan looked over his shoulder.
“Then why are you sweating?”
Richard said nothing.
Ethan ran his fingers along the wooden trim.
Near the floor, almost invisible beneath years of polish, he found a tiny brass opening.
He inserted Sophie’s key.
Click.
A narrow panel released.
Behind it sat a blue leather ledger.
Celeste whispered one word.
“No.”
Ethan heard her.
He pulled the ledger free.
Richard moved.
Fast.
Too fast.
He lunged toward Ethan.
Sophie screamed.
Ethan turned and drove his shoulder into Richard’s chest.
They crashed against the cabinet.
Richard grabbed for the ledger.
Ethan shoved him backward.
“Stay away from my daughter.”
Richard straightened his shirt.
“You have no idea what you’re holding.”
“Then I’m guessing it matters.”
Ethan opened the ledger.
At first, he saw numbers.
Dates.
Account transfers.
Company names.
Then he saw signatures.
Richard Halden.
Celeste Marrow.
Celeste’s maiden name.
Transfers had been made from the Blackwood Foundation into shell corporations in Luxembourg, Switzerland, and the Cayman Islands.
Millions of dollars.
The earliest entries were dated eight years ago.
Before Amelia died.
Ethan flipped another page.
His stomach tightened.
Amelia had annotated the margins.
“Unauthorized.”
“Richard approved without board consent.”
“Celeste supplied false beneficiary documentation.”
Then another note.
“If they discover I copied these records, Sophie may be in danger.”
Ethan looked up.
Celeste had started crying.
But there was something wrong with the tears.
They looked like strategy.
“Ethan, I can explain everything.”
“You had seven years.”
“I was scared.”
“Of what?”
“Richard.”
Richard laughed once.
“Don’t.”
Celeste turned toward him.
“You said no one would get hurt.”
“Stop talking.”
Ethan closed the ledger.
“Keep going, Celeste.”
Richard’s face hardened.
Celeste looked at Ethan.
Then at Sophie.
“I didn’t put her in that suitcase.”
Sophie whispered.
“Yes, you did.”
Celeste flinched.
“You were upset.”
“You locked it.”
“I was trying to keep you safe.”
“You told me I was going on a trip where Daddy couldn’t find me.”
Ethan’s jaw tightened.
Celeste stepped closer.
“She misunderstood.”
“She’s six, Celeste.”
“Exactly.”
Sophie suddenly slipped her hand into Ethan’s.
“No, Daddy.”
Her voice was small.
But steady.
“I didn’t misunderstand.”
Ethan squeezed her hand.
“I believe you.”
Celeste stared at him.
Something cold entered her face.
“You believe a frightened child over your wife?”
Ethan looked at the suitcase marks still red around Sophie’s wrists from pounding on the inside.
“Yes.”
The answer came without hesitation.
Sirens sounded faintly in the distance.
Celeste heard them too.
She turned toward Richard.
“You said we had more time.”
Richard’s expression sharpened.
Ethan caught the words.
“What time?”
No one answered.
He pulled out his phone.
Then the house lights went out.
Sophie gasped.
The sunroom dropped into darkness.
May you like
From somewhere behind Ethan came the sound of breaking glass.
Then Richard ran.
