Chapter 10 - SOPHIE’S PURPLE NOTEBOOK
Police reached the house before Vanessa could start the fire.
She escaped through the beach access behind the property.
The gasoline had been a distraction.
What she wanted was the notebook.
Ethan sat beside Sophie’s hospital bed.
“Sophie.”
She was drawing.
A blue house.
A yellow sun.
Two stick figures holding hands.
“What was in your purple notebook?”
Her crayon stopped.
Vanessa had terrified her.
Ethan saw it instantly.
“You’re not in trouble.”
Sophie whispered, “My secrets.”
“What secrets?”
“Things Vanessa did.”
Ethan stared.
“You wrote them down?”
“I drawed them.”
“Drew.”
She nodded.
“Mrs. Parker told us if something scares us, we can draw it.”
Her preschool teacher.
Ethan felt a wave of gratitude toward a woman who had unknowingly given Sophie a way to document the truth.
“What did you draw?”
Sophie counted on her fingers.
“Vanessa pinching me.”
Ethan closed his eyes briefly.
“The closet.”
Another finger.
“The medicine.”
Another.
“Uncle Cole.”
Another.
Then she hesitated.
“What else?”
“The stairs.”
Ethan’s eyes opened.
“What stairs?”
“Vanessa pushed you.”
He froze.
“What?”
Sophie looked confused.
“You fell.”
A memory returned.
Three months earlier.
Ethan had fallen on the back staircase after dinner.
He remembered feeling dizzy.
He had assumed jet lag.
Vanessa said his foot slipped.
He sprained his wrist.
Nothing more.
But now…
“What happened before I fell?”
“You drank coffee.”
Ethan felt nauseated.
“And then?”
“Vanessa was behind you.”
Sophie demonstrated with her hand.
“She did this.”
A pushing motion.
Rachel, sitting nearby, covered her mouth.
Ethan whispered, “Sophie, did she know you saw?”
Sophie nodded.
“That’s when she started being mean all the time.”
Everything clicked.
Vanessa hadn’t simply abused Sophie because she resented her.
She was silencing a witness.
A four-year-old witness.
Hale arrived minutes later.
Ethan told him.
His expression hardened.
“That could support attempted murder.”
“Find the notebook.”
“We’re trying.”
Ethan stood.
“She has it.”
“Probably.”
“She’ll destroy it.”
“Maybe not.”
“Why?”
“Because Vanessa keeps leverage.”
Hale paced.
“She kept Cole around because he was useful.”
“So?”
“She may keep evidence instead of destroying it because evidence gives her power.”
Ethan looked toward Sophie.
Then his phone buzzed.
A text.
Vanessa.
COME ALONE IF YOU WANT THE NOTEBOOK.
Below it was an address.
Rachel saw the screen.
“Absolutely not.”
Hale reached for the phone.
“It’s a trap.”
Ethan already knew.
Then another message came.
A photograph.
Vanessa holding Sophie’s notebook over an open fireplace.
TEN MINUTES.
Ethan looked at Hale.
“I’m going.”
“No.”
“You follow me.”
“She said alone.”
“She’ll expect police anyway.”
Ethan stared at the photograph.
“That notebook contains what she did to Sophie.”
Hale said, “Your daughter is alive. That matters more than paper.”
Ethan looked through the glass at Sophie.
She smiled at him.
He knew Hale was right.
Then another message appeared.
AND ETHAN? ASK YOUR SISTER WHAT REALLY HAPPENED TO EMILY.
Ethan looked toward Rachel.
Her face had turned white.
“Rachel?”
She backed away.
“What is she talking about?”
Rachel couldn’t answer.
“Who is Emily?”
May you like
Rachel began crying.
And suddenly Ethan realized Vanessa wasn’t the only person in his family hiding something.
