Chapter 1 - Three Days Before Sophie Was Born
Emma Carter would remember the moment the wine glass left her hand more clearly than the sound of it breaking.
Across the backyard, beyond the dinner tables and hanging lanterns, Eleanor stood beside the circular stone fire pit with baby Sophie in her arms.
Something was wrong.
Eleanor was not rocking her.
She was staring at the pale-pink blanket as though it contained something terrifying.
“Eleanor, NO!”
Eleanor threw the bundle.
Richard moved before anyone else understood what was happening.
He sprinted across the grass and launched himself toward the fire pit. Sophie never touched the flames. Richard caught her above the stone rim, twisted his body and crashed onto the lawn several feet away.
A loose corner of the blanket had caught a tiny flame.
Richard smothered it instantly.
Sophie wailed.
“She’s safe!”
Emma dropped beside him, touching Sophie’s cheeks, forehead and tiny hands.
Unharmed.
Emma’s relief lasted seconds.
Then she surged toward Eleanor.
“You tried to kill my baby!”
Eleanor looked frightened rather than guilty.
Not at Emma.
At the blanket.
“Open the blanket.”
Richard cautiously unfolded the scorched outer edge.
Something plastic slipped between the layers.
A hospital identification bracelet.
Emma stared.
It carried Sophie’s name.
SOPHIE CARTER.
Then Richard saw the date.
March 14.
Sophie had been born March 17.
Emma’s lips parted.
“That’s impossible.”
Eleanor looked at her.
“That isn’t the baby you brought home.”
Emma immediately pulled Sophie against her chest.
Before anyone could speak, a woman shouted from inside the house.
“Where is my daughter?!”
Everyone turned.
A female silhouette stood behind the patio door.
Eleanor whispered:
“She found us.”
The door opened.
A woman in her early thirties stepped outside.
Brunette. Pale. Trembling.
Emma had never seen her before.
But the stranger stopped the moment she saw Sophie.
Her knees almost buckled.
“My God.”
Emma stepped backward.
“Who are you?”
The woman didn't answer.
She stared at the hospital bracelet in Richard’s hand.
Then she looked at Eleanor.
“You promised me you destroyed that.”
Emma slowly turned toward her mother-in-law.
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The stranger wasn't asking about the baby.
She was asking about the bracelet.
