Chapter 5
I didn't sleep that night.
Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Sophie's passport.
A document I had never requested.
A signature I had never written.
A photograph Ryan must have arranged without telling me.
What frightened me most was how easy it apparently had been.
I thought about every ordinary afternoon when he had offered to pick Sophie up from school.
Every Saturday when he took her to breakfast.
Every time I had smiled and thought I was lucky to have an involved father.
What else had happened while I trusted him?
Dad sat with me until sunrise.
At seven, Detective Brooks called.
“We confirmed the passport was issued four months ago.”
I nearly dropped the phone.
“Four months?”
“Yes.”
“Has it been used?”
“No.”
I exhaled.
Then she added, “But we found something else.”
My stomach tightened.
“What?”
“Printed airline itineraries.”
Dad leaned closer.
“To where?”
“Costa Rica.”
I closed my eyes.
“When?”
“Two weeks from now.”
My birthday month.
Ryan had told me he had a work conference that weekend.
I felt sick.
“Whose names?”
“Ryan Bennett. Diane Bennett. Sophie Bennett.”
My entire body went cold.
I couldn't speak.
Dad took the phone.
“What airline?”
Detective Brooks answered.
Then Dad asked, “Were tickets purchased?”
“Yes.”
“With what money?”
“We're tracing it.”
I stood abruptly.
“No.”
Dad looked at me.
I started pacing.
“No, no, no.”
Sophie walked out of the bathroom in her pajamas.
“Mommy?”
I forced myself to stop.
“I'm okay, baby.”
She looked at my face.
Children always know.
“No, you're not.”
I knelt and hugged her.
“I will be.”
Dad ended the call.
Then he crouched beside us.
“You're both going to be.”
Later that morning, an emergency family court hearing was arranged.
My attorney, Rachel Kim, met us at the courthouse.
She had already reviewed the evidence.
The belt assault.
The video.
The forged financial forms.
The passport.
The airline itinerary.
“We're asking for temporary sole custody,” she said.
My stomach twisted.
“What happens to Ryan?”
“He'll have a chance to respond.”
“Can he see Sophie?”
“We'll request supervised visitation only.”
I looked at Sophie sitting with Dad across the hallway.
She was coloring a picture of a house.
Her house had a huge yellow sun.
Three stick figures stood outside.
Me.
Her.
Grandpa.
No Ryan.
That hurt.
Not because I wanted him back.
Because my daughter had already learned not to put her father in the picture.
Ryan arrived with an attorney.
His face looked exhausted.
When he saw Sophie, he moved toward her.
She immediately hid behind Dad.
Ryan stopped.
Pain crossed his face.
“Sophie.”
She didn't answer.
“Baby, Daddy loves you.”
Her tiny hand gripped Dad's jacket.
I stood.
“Don't pressure her.”
Ryan looked at me.
“I'm not.”
“She doesn't want to talk.”
His lawyer touched his shoulder.
Ryan backed away.
The hearing lasted less than an hour.
My attorney presented the photographs and video.
Ryan's attorney argued that the assault involved Diane, not Ryan.
Then Rachel played the part where Ryan grabbed my wrist.
The courtroom became silent.
The judge watched twice.
Then came the passport.
Ryan leaned toward his attorney.
They whispered urgently.
The judge looked over her glasses.
“Mr. Bennett, did you obtain a passport for your six-year-old daughter without her mother's knowledge?”
Ryan's attorney stood.
“My client invokes his right not to answer questions that may concern the ongoing criminal investigation.”
That sentence told me everything.
The judge's expression hardened.
Temporary sole custody was granted to me.
Ryan received supervised visitation.
He was ordered not to remove Sophie from the state.
Diane was prohibited from contacting either of us.
When the judge finished, I finally breathed.
Outside the courtroom, Ryan approached me.
His lawyer tried to stop him.
“Emily, please.”
I looked at him.
His eyes were red.
“I wasn't kidnapping her.”
“What do you call secretly obtaining her passport?”
“It wasn't like that.”
“What was it like?”
He lowered his voice.
“I was scared.”
“Of what?”
He looked around.
Then he said, “The people I owe.”
My heart stopped.
Dad moved closer.
Ryan continued.
“I made bad investments.”
“How bad?”
He swallowed.
“Almost four hundred thousand.”
I stared at him.
“Four hundred thousand dollars?”
“I thought I could recover it.”
“So you stole my inheritance.”
“I was desperate.”
“And Costa Rica?”
His eyes filled with tears.
“I thought if things got worse, Mom and I could take Sophie somewhere safe.”
I almost couldn't process the cruelty of what he was saying.
“Without me.”
He didn't answer.
“Ryan.”
He looked down.
“You were going to leave me behind.”
“I thought you'd refuse.”
“Of course I would refuse!”
People in the hallway turned.
I lowered my voice.
“You were going to take my child to another country and disappear.”
His face crumpled.
“I love her.”
“Love doesn't look like that.”
He started crying.
“I never wanted to hurt you.”
I laughed through my own tears.
“You stood there while your mother hit me.”
“I froze.”
“You grabbed me.”
“I panicked.”
“You stole from me.”
“I was desperate.”
“You forged my signature.”
“I was scared.”
“Every terrible thing you did has an excuse.”
He looked at me.
I shook my head.
“But none of your excuses protected me.”
Ryan whispered, “I'm sorry.”
For the first time, I believed he meant it.
And for the first time, it didn't matter.
I turned away.
Then he grabbed my arm.
Not hard.
But Dad reacted instantly.
“Let go.”
Ryan released me.
Courthouse security looked over.
I stepped back.
Ryan whispered, “There's something else.”
I froze.
“What?”
His face went pale.
“The anonymous message about the storage unit.”
“What about it?”
“I think I know who sent it.”
“Who?”
He looked toward the elevators.
“Mom's boyfriend.”
I blinked.
“Diane has a boyfriend?”
Ryan gave a broken laugh.
“You really don't know anything about what she's been doing.”
Before I could ask more, the elevator opened.
A man in his late sixties stepped out.
I had seen him once before.
At Diane's Christmas party.
She had introduced him as a family friend.
His name was Victor Hale.
He looked directly at me.
Then he raised a thick folder.
“I sent the messages.”
Ryan's face drained of color.
May you like
Victor stopped in front of me.
“And I can prove Diane was planning to take far more than your daughter out of the country.”
