Chapter 2 - GRANDMA’S CAR
Daniel barely slept.
Every time he closed his eyes, he saw Sophie’s wrists.
Then Emily’s face.
At 6:12 the next morning, Sophie sat at the kitchen table wearing pink pajamas while Daniel made pancakes she barely touched.
He crouched beside her.
“Can you tell Daddy about Mommy?”
Sophie pushed a blueberry around her plate.
“Grandma said I wasn’t supposed to.”
Daniel’s stomach tightened.
“Grandma Margaret?”
Sophie nodded.
Daniel’s mother lived twenty minutes away.
She had helped him survive the year after Emily disappeared.
She had held Sophie when Daniel couldn’t stop crying.
She had arranged the funeral.
She had even chosen the cemetery plot.
“Why did Grandma tell you not to say anything?”
Sophie’s forehead wrinkled.
“She said Mommy was sleeping.”
“Where?”
“The blue house.”
Daniel remembered Vanessa’s words.
Ask her what she saw in the blue house.
His hands went cold.
“What blue house, Soph?”
“The one with the white fence.”
“Did Grandma take you there?”
Sophie nodded.
“Vanessa came too.”
Daniel stood so fast his chair scraped backward.
“When?”
“When you went on the airplane.”
Chicago.
Three weeks earlier.
Daniel had spent two nights in Chicago negotiating a construction contract.
His mother and Vanessa had watched Sophie.
“What happened there?”
Sophie looked frightened.
“Mommy cried.”
Daniel’s chest tightened.
“You saw her?”
“She was behind a window.”
“What did she say?”
“She put her hand here.”
Sophie pressed her palm against the kitchen window.
“I put mine there too.”
Daniel felt dizzy.
“Did you talk to her?”
“Grandma pulled me away.”
“Why?”
“She said Mommy was sick.”
Daniel grabbed his phone.
His first instinct was to call Margaret.
Then he stopped.
If Sophie was telling the truth, his mother had hidden something from him.
Maybe for three years.
He needed information before accusations.
He called his brother instead.
Ethan answered on the fourth ring.
“Daniel? It’s barely seven.”
“I need to ask you something.”
“Okay.”
“Did Mom take Sophie anywhere while I was in Chicago?”
Silence.
Only half a second.
But Daniel heard it.
“I don’t know.”
“Think.”
“Daniel, I wasn’t babysitting her.”
“Did she take Sophie to a blue house?”
Another silence.
This one longer.
“What is this about?”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
“That’s not an answer.”
Ethan sighed.
“Mom owns a rental property outside Ridgewood.”
“What color?”
“I don’t know.”
“Give me the address.”
“Why?”
“Give me the damn address.”
Ethan’s voice changed.
“Daniel, don’t do anything stupid.”
Daniel froze.
“I never told you I was going anywhere.”
Ethan said nothing.
Daniel looked across the kitchen at Sophie.
She was watching him.
“Why would going to Mom’s rental property be stupid?”
“Because you’re upset.”
“About what?”
More silence.
Daniel’s pulse hammered.
“Ethan.”
His brother finally spoke.
“There are things you don’t know about Emily.”
Daniel’s fingers tightened around the phone.
“What things?”
“Things Mom tried to protect you from.”
Daniel laughed once.
There was no humor in it.
“My daughter says Emily is alive.”
Ethan inhaled sharply.
Daniel heard it clearly.
And that sound told him more than any answer could.
“You knew.”
“No.”
“You knew something.”
“Daniel—”
“You knew.”
“Listen to me.”
“I’m done listening.”
Daniel ended the call.
Ten minutes later, he buckled Sophie into the back seat.
He called his longtime friend, Detective Aaron Blake.
“I need a favor.”
Aaron heard his voice and immediately stopped joking.
“What happened?”
Daniel told him enough.
Not everything.
Aaron was quiet.
“Don’t confront anyone alone.”
“I’m going to my mother’s house.”
“Daniel.”
“I need answers.”
“Then I’m coming.”
Daniel drove across town.
Margaret Mercer opened the front door wearing a cream robe and a surprised smile.
“Daniel?”
The smile disappeared when she saw his face.
“Where is Emily?”
Margaret’s hand froze on the door.
Behind her, something crashed.
Daniel looked past his mother.
His brother Ethan was standing in the hallway.
And on the console table beside him sat a framed photograph Daniel had never seen.
It showed Margaret outside a blue house.
The picture had been taken only four months earlier.
Standing beside her was Vanessa.
And behind the upstairs window—
barely visible through the glass—
May you like
was a woman with Emily’s face.
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