Chapter 3 - What Sophie Tried to Say
Daniel did not sleep.
Sophie finally did around two in the morning, curled beneath a hospital blanket with one hand wrapped around his finger.
He sat in the chair beside her bed and watched every breath.
At dawn, Mara Keene called.
Daniel almost ignored it.
Mara had been Claire’s estate attorney.
She had stopped working for Daniel’s family shortly after Claire died, following an argument Daniel had never fully understood.
“Daniel,” she said, “I heard about Sophie.”
“How?”
“Victor called me.”
Daniel straightened.
“Why would Victor call you?”
“He wanted to know whether Claire ever left me a key.”
The room seemed to shrink.
“What did you tell him?”
“That I don’t discuss former clients with him.”
“Mara, what key?”
Silence.
“Where are you?”
“Children’s Hospital.”
“I’ll come there.”
She arrived forty minutes later wearing a navy coat and carrying no briefcase.
That frightened Daniel more than if she had brought twenty boxes.
They spoke in a consultation room while a nurse stayed with Sophie.
Mara folded her hands.
“Before Claire died, she became concerned about irregularities inside Mercer Biomedical.”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
“This again.”
Mara’s eyes sharpened.
“That reaction is exactly why she came to me instead of you.”
Daniel flinched.
Claire had accused Victor of manipulating vendor contracts during the final year of her life.
Daniel had ordered an internal review.
The review had found “procedural weaknesses” but no theft.
Claire had remained suspicious.
Daniel had grown frustrated.
Their last serious argument before her car accident had been about Victor.
You trust him more than you trust me.
He still remembered her saying it.
“What did she find?”
“I don’t know everything. Attorney-client privilege survived her death in some respects, and there are limits to what I can disclose. But Claire told me she had made copies of financial records.”
“Where?”
“She refused to tell me.”
Daniel stared at her.
“She said if anything ever happened to her, Sophie would eventually have access to them.”
“Sophie was four.”
“She wasn’t supposed to access them at four.”
“The key.”
Mara nodded.
“Claire mentioned a brass key.”
Daniel sat back.
Outside the glass wall, a hospital cart rolled past.
He barely heard it.
“What was she investigating?”
“Northstar Consulting.”
Daniel knew the name.
A vendor used by Mercer Biomedical for overseas supply-chain compliance.
“What about it?”
“Claire believed Northstar was a pass-through company.”
“For whom?”
“She suspected Victor.”
Daniel stood.
“That’s impossible.”
Mara watched him.
Even now, he was defending Victor automatically.
Daniel realized it and stopped.
Mara said, “Claire also suspected someone inside your charitable foundation was helping approve invoices.”
Vanessa had joined the Mercer Foundation eighteen months after Claire died.
“She didn’t know Vanessa then.”
Mara’s gaze changed.
“Yes, she did.”
Daniel looked at her.
“No.”
“Vanessa Sloan was a communications consultant on the foundation’s pediatric outreach campaign before Claire died.”
The name struck him.
Sloan.
Vanessa had told Daniel they first crossed paths at a charity dinner after Claire’s death.
“You’re sure?”
“I met her.”
Daniel’s chair scraped backward.
“No.”
“Claire disliked her.”
“Why?”
“Because Claire believed Vanessa was reporting internal foundation information to Victor.”
Daniel walked to the window.
For three years, he had believed his marriage to Vanessa began in grief.
A chance conversation.
Coffee.
Her understanding of loneliness.
Her patience with Sophie.
He had thought fate had been strangely kind.
Now he wondered whether fate had ever been involved.
When Sophie woke, Daniel returned to her room.
She picked at a piece of toast.
“Daddy?”
“Yes?”
“Are we going home?”
“Not to Vanessa.”
Her shoulders dropped in visible relief.
Daniel swallowed.
“Sophie, you never have to protect me from the truth.”
She stared at the toast.
“Vanessa said you’d get mad.”
“At you?”
“She said you’d get mad because I make problems.”
Daniel moved closer.
“I’m angry at myself.”
Sophie looked up.
“Why?”
“Because you tried to tell me something and I didn’t listen.”
She was quiet.
Then she whispered, “You were working.”
The simplicity of it hurt more than accusation.
“I was.”
“She said your work was more important.”
Daniel closed his eyes briefly.
“No.”
“But you always left.”
There was no defense that would not sound like another lie.
So he said, “Yes. I did.”
Sophie’s lower lip trembled.
Daniel took her hand.
“I can’t change those days. But I can change what I do from now on.”
Sophie looked toward the door.
“Will Vanessa come?”
“No.”
“What if she tells them you hit her?”
Daniel went still.
“You heard that?”
“She told the police.”
“Yes.”
“Will you go away?”
Fear entered her eyes.
Daniel resisted the instinct to promise something he could not control.
“I made a bad choice when I hit Vanessa. Adults have consequences too.”
Sophie stared at him.
“But you were saving me.”
“I was saving you when I untied you. Hitting Vanessa wasn’t necessary to make you safe.”
She considered that.
Seven years old, and already being forced to understand distinctions adults avoided.
Daniel squeezed her hand.
“I will do everything legally and safely from now on.”
Sophie nodded slowly.
Then she looked down.
“There’s something I didn’t tell the lady.”
Daniel’s heartbeat changed.
“You can tell her later if you want.”
Sophie whispered, “I know where the key is.”
He did not move.
“Where?”
She looked at him with frightened blue eyes.
“I hid it where Mommy told me secrets should sleep.”
Daniel felt cold spread through him.
“Where is that?”
Sophie shook her head.
“I can’t tell you yet.”
May you like
“Why?”
“Because Vanessa said Victor can hear inside our house.”
