Chapter 2 - Vanessa’s First Lie
Daniel did not allow Vanessa near the children that night.
Rachel kept Ethan and Sophie at her house while Daniel took photographs of Ethan’s injuries and contacted an attorney.
Vanessa sat at the kitchen table.
Silent.
No tears.
That bothered Daniel.
He expected denial.
Excuses.
An apology.
Instead, she kept looking toward the empty hallway.
“Where did Sophie get the box?”
Daniel asked.
Vanessa stared at him.
“I told you. Ask her.”
“She’s fifteen months old.”
“She understands more than you think.”
“That does not answer me.”
Vanessa folded her hands.
“I found her with it this morning.”
“Where?”
“In your office.”
Daniel frowned.
His home office remained locked whenever he traveled.
Vanessa had a spare key.
The children did not.
“How did Sophie get inside?”
“I don’t know.”
“What were you looking for when you started demanding to know where she was?”
Vanessa said nothing.
Daniel’s voice hardened.
“You hurt Ethan because Sophie had that box.”
“No.”
“That is exactly what I walked in on.”
“I was trying to make Ethan tell me where she hid.”
“Why?”
Vanessa whispered:
“Because she saw something.”
Daniel stared at her.
“What?”
She immediately pulled back.
“I shouldn’t have said that.”
Too late.
Daniel moved closer.
“What did Sophie see?”
Vanessa shook her head.
“If I tell you now, you’ll think I’m lying.”
“I already think you’re lying.”
Her mouth tightened.
Then she said:
“Your daughter has been doing strange things for weeks.”
“Like what?”
“Standing in your office.”
“Babies wander.”
“Not like this.”
According to Vanessa, Sophie repeatedly walked toward Daniel’s desk whenever she was left alone.
She would stand beside the bottom drawer.
Point.
Sometimes cry.
One afternoon, Vanessa found her holding Daniel’s old college ring.
The ring had been stored inside a locked drawer.
“How did she get it?”
“I don’t know.”
Another time Sophie carried a photograph into the living room.
Not a family photo.
An old Polaroid.
Daniel with another man.
Daniel remembered immediately.
His older brother, Michael.
Dead sixteen years.
Car accident.
He rarely spoke about him.
“Where is that photograph now?”
Vanessa looked toward the hall.
“Sophie hid it.”
Again.
Everything Sophie touched disappeared.
The toddler was becoming the center of a mystery she could not possibly understand.
Then Daniel asked the obvious question.
“If you thought she found something dangerous, why didn’t you call me?”
Vanessa’s eyes sharpened.
“Because the thing she found belongs to you.”
“What?”
“That box.”
“I’ve never seen it.”
Vanessa laughed once.
“You really don’t recognize it?”
“No.”
For the first time, she looked confused.
Genuinely.
Then she whispered:
“Oh God.”
“What?”
Vanessa stood.
“That means somebody put it there recently.”
Daniel froze.
“Who?”
She looked at him.
“I don’t know.”
Then her phone buzzed.
A message.
She read it.
All color disappeared from her face.
Daniel grabbed the phone before she could delete it.
Unknown number.
One sentence:
DID THE LITTLE GIRL FIND IT?
Daniel looked up.
Vanessa whispered:
“I told you.”
May you like
Then another message arrived.
IF SHE DID, YOU HAVE UNTIL MIDNIGHT.
