Chapter 1 - THE BEDROOM DOOR
Sophie Mercer screamed for her father exactly three seconds before the bedroom door exploded open.
“DADDY!”
Daniel Mercer hit the door so hard the brass handle slammed into the wall.
He stopped cold.
His four-year-old daughter sat trembling on the edge of her bed.
Her tiny wrists were tied together with a soft fabric belt.
Tears covered her cheeks.
And Vanessa Cole, the woman Daniel planned to marry in six weeks, was standing over her.
For half a second, nobody moved.
Then Daniel dropped the grocery bag in his hand.
“Vanessa.”
His voice was terrifyingly quiet.
“What did you do?”
Vanessa stepped backward.
“Daniel, this isn’t what it looks like.”
Sophie made a broken little sound.
“Daddy…”
Daniel crossed the room in two strides.
He dropped to his knees and pulled at the knot around Sophie’s wrists.
“Baby, look at me.”
Her lower lip shook.
“I was scared.”
“I know.”
“Don’t leave me.”
“I’m not leaving.”
He freed her hands and immediately pulled her against his chest.
She clung to his shirt so tightly her tiny fingers hurt.
Daniel kissed her hair.
Then he looked across the room.
Vanessa had gone pale.
“What did you say to her?”
Vanessa shook her head.
“She was having a tantrum.”
Sophie buried her face against Daniel.
“She said Mommy was bad.”
Daniel’s entire body went still.
Vanessa swallowed.
“Sophie is confused.”
Sophie lifted her wet face.
“She said I’ll end up just like Mommy.”
Daniel slowly stood.
He kept Sophie in his arms.
“What exactly does that mean?”
Vanessa’s eyes moved toward the door.
Daniel noticed.
“Don’t.”
“I think we should calm down.”
“You tied my four-year-old daughter’s wrists.”
“She was throwing things!”
“So you tied her up?”
“I panicked.”
Daniel stared at the woman he had trusted inside his home for nearly a year.
The woman who packed Sophie’s lunches.
Read her bedtime stories.
Held her hand at preschool pickup.
The woman who had cried when Daniel proposed.
Now Sophie was shaking every time Vanessa moved.
Daniel pointed toward the hallway.
“Get out of my house.”
Vanessa blinked.
“Daniel—”
“Now.”
“You don’t understand what I’ve been dealing with.”
“No.”
He tightened his hold on Sophie.
“You don’t understand what you just destroyed.”
Vanessa’s expression changed.
Not fear.
Anger.
“You think Sophie is innocent because she’s four.”
Daniel stared at her.
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“She sees things.”
“She remembers things.”
“She says things she shouldn’t know.”
Daniel felt Sophie’s fingers tighten around his collar.
Vanessa took another step back.
Then she whispered:
“Ask her what she saw in the blue house.”
Daniel frowned.
“What blue house?”
Vanessa grabbed her purse and walked toward the door.
Daniel blocked her.
“What blue house?”
Vanessa looked at Sophie.
Sophie immediately hid her face.
Daniel felt her shaking again.
“Stop looking at her.”
Vanessa gave him one final cold look.
“You want the truth?”
“Fine.”
“Ask your daughter why she keeps saying her dead mother visits her at night.”
Daniel forgot how to breathe.
Vanessa walked past him.
The front door slammed downstairs.
For several seconds, Daniel stood frozen.
His wife, Emily, had died almost three years earlier.
A car had gone over a bridge.
The police recovered pieces of the vehicle.
Emily’s purse.
Her coat.
Blood matching her DNA.
But they never recovered her body.
Daniel had spent two years convincing himself that the river had taken her.
He looked down at Sophie.
“Sweetheart?”
Sophie slowly raised her face.
“What did Vanessa mean?”
Her eyes filled with fresh tears.
Daniel brushed her hair back.
“Have you been dreaming about Mommy?”
Sophie shook her head.
“No.”
“Then what did she mean?”
Sophie looked toward the hallway as if she were afraid Vanessa might still be listening.
Then she whispered:
“I saw Mommy.”
Daniel’s heart slammed against his ribs.
“When?”
Sophie pointed toward her bedroom window.
“Three sleeps ago.”
Daniel stared at her.
“Where?”
Sophie’s answer made his blood run cold.
May you like
“In Grandma’s car.”
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