Chapter 9 - The Friend Who Planned the Dress
Sophie did not run.
That made her more frightening.
When police arrived at her apartment, she was sitting at the kitchen table drinking tea.
She admitted wearing white.
Admitted entering the laundry room.
Admitted starting the machine.
Then said:
“I was trying to save Lily.”
Claire almost laughed.
“How?”
“By making Ethan believe you were dangerous.”
“You could have killed her.”
“The machine ran for six seconds.”
“You didn't know Ethan would arrive.”
“Yes, I did.”
Sophie knew Ethan's route.
She sent a venue assistant to tell him something was wrong near the service hall.
Ethan walked past the washer exactly when intended.
Lily's original plan had been crude.
Sophie improved it.
That was the horrifying part.
Lily had not acted alone.
But Sophie had not invented the plan either.
“Why would Lily trust you?”
“Because Rachel told her to.”
Claire stared.
Sophie had known Rachel.
Years before Claire met Ethan.
Rachel contacted Sophie when Claire and Ethan became serious.
“How?”
“Email.”
From an account programmed years earlier to activate if Ethan's public wedding engagement was announced.
Rachel had prepared contingencies.
Sophie received files.
Instructions.
Warnings.
She initially thought it was a hoax.
Then details proved real.
Rachel asked one thing:
Do not let Claire marry Ethan until she knows what happened to me.
Sophie tried warning Claire indirectly.
Claire dismissed it as jealousy.
So Sophie contacted Lily.
The child already knew about the rabbit recordings.
Together, they planned the washer scene.
Claire felt betrayed from every direction.
“You involved a seven-year-old in this.”
“I know.”
“You turned her fear into theater.”
“I know.”
“You started the machine.”
Sophie's eyes filled.
“That wasn't part of our plan.”
Claire stopped.
“What?”
Sophie said she entered after Noah and Victoria left.
She found Lily inside.
Lily whispered that Ethan was approaching.
Sophie pressed the START button only because Lily told her the machine was disconnected.
But someone had reconnected it.
Ethan had unplugged it when he arrived.
Before that, another hidden power feed had already been attached behind the wall.
Sophie expected sound effects.
Not water.
When water entered, she panicked.
She hit STOP.
The button failed.
She ran to find help.
Ethan arrived first.
“So you did turn it on.”
“Yes.”
“But someone made sure it would actually run.”
“Yes.”
Claire understood.
Lily staged herself.
Sophie staged the discovery.
Noah closed the door.
Victoria searched the room.
Someone else rigged the power.
Every apparent answer contained another person's fingerprints.
“Who?”
Sophie pulled out Rachel's missing page.
The page torn from the letter.
Claire read.
The person controlling Ethan isn't Noah.
It isn't Victoria either.
Then a name.
Claire looked up.
Sophie nodded.
“I didn't believe it.”
Claire read again.
CHARLES MERCER.
May you like
Ethan's father.
The man who had been dead for five years.
