Chapter 5
I did not sleep.
Neither did Sophie.
She lay curled beside me, one hand gripping my sleeve.
Every time her breathing changed, I opened my eyes.
Every time a pipe clicked, she jerked awake.
At dawn, she whispered, “Daddy?”
“I’m here.”
“Is Vanessa gone?”
“Yes.”
“Forever?”
I closed my eyes.
“For now. I’m working on forever.”
She nodded.
Then she asked, “Did I ruin everything?”
“No.”
“She said I did.”
I turned toward her.
“Vanessa lied about many things.”
“Did she lie about Mommy?”
My chest tightened.
“What did she say about Mommy?”
Sophie looked at the ceiling.
“She said Mommy left because she was tired of me.”
I could not breathe.
Laura died in a car crash when Sophie was four.
Rainy road.
Bad curve.
Truck driver asleep at the wheel.
That was the official story.
I had believed it because grief had made me obedient.
Because when your world burns down, you accept any explanation that lets you bury the body.
I pulled Sophie close.
“Your mother loved you more than anything.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
“She didn’t leave?”
“No, baby.”
Sophie began to cry.
Not loud.
Not dramatic.
Just years of poison leaving through a tiny body.
I held her until Aaron knocked softly.
He had stayed in the guest room.
His face told me he had found something.
I left Sophie with Dr. Patel, who had come back before breakfast, and followed Aaron to my office.
He placed a file on my desk.
“Daniel Marsh’s sister sent more.”
I opened it.
Photos.
Emails.
A restraining order.
A letter Daniel wrote but never mailed.
If anything happens to me, look at Vanessa’s medications. She knows how to make people seem unstable.
I looked up.
Aaron’s voice dropped.
“There’s more.”
He handed me another page.
A receipt from a pharmacy near the hospital where Laura worked.
Vanessa’s name.
Dated two weeks before Laura’s crash.
My pulse slowed.
“What medication?”
“Sedatives.”
I stared at the receipt until the words blurred.
Aaron said, “It doesn’t prove anything.”
“No.”
May you like
But it opened the grave.
And something inside it had started knocking.
