Chapter 2 - THE WOMAN IN THE ROOMHe stepped inside.
His daughter, Sophie, was sitting on the far end of the couch with her knees pulled tightly against her chest.
Across from her stood Victoria Lane.
Daniel’s fiancée.
Victoria still wore the cream-colored suit she had put on that morning before leaving for what she had described as a charity committee luncheon. Her dark hair was immaculate. Her diamond bracelet caught the afternoon light.
Nothing about her looked unusual.
Except her face.
The softness she normally wore around Daniel was gone.
Her mouth was tight. Her eyes were cold.
And Sophie was staring at her as if she were afraid to move.
Daniel stopped in the doorway.
Victoria turned first.
Her expression changed almost instantly.
“Daniel.”
The warmth returned to her voice so quickly that it unsettled him.
“What are you doing home?”
Daniel did not answer.
He looked at Sophie.
Her eyes were red.
“Soph?”
She glanced at Victoria before answering.
That glance was small.
Almost instinctive.
But Daniel saw it.
And something inside him tightened.
“Dad.”
He crossed the room and crouched in front of her.
“What happened?”
“I’m okay.”
The answer came too quickly.
Daniel had heard that tone before from executives trying to conceal bad news and from employees who knew they had made an expensive mistake.
But hearing it from his eleven-year-old daughter was different.
“Look at me.”
Sophie slowly raised her eyes.
Daniel noticed a faint red mark around her wrist.
His expression changed.
“What happened to your arm?”
Sophie pulled her sleeve down.
Victoria exhaled sharply.
“This is getting completely out of proportion.”
Daniel stood.
“Then explain it.”
Victoria folded her arms.
“Sophie had another episode.”
“What kind of episode?”
“She became disrespectful. She started shouting at me and accusing me of ridiculous things.”
Daniel turned to his daughter.
“Were you shouting?”
Sophie’s lips trembled.
“No.”
Victoria laughed once.
“Daniel, seriously?”
Maria appeared silently in the hallway.
Daniel noticed her but kept his eyes on Sophie.
“What were you talking about when I walked in?”
No answer.
“Sophie?”
His daughter looked at Victoria again.
Daniel followed her gaze.
Then he understood.
“You can leave the room, Victoria.”
Her eyebrows lifted.
“Excuse me?”
“I want to speak to Sophie alone.”
Victoria’s expression hardened.
“We’re getting married in six weeks. I am going to be part of this family. You cannot undermine me every time your daughter decides she doesn’t like a rule.”
Daniel kept his voice even.
“Leave the room.”
For several seconds, neither of them moved.
Then Victoria picked up her handbag.
“Fine.”
She walked toward him.
As she passed, she lowered her voice.
“You’re encouraging this.”
Daniel said nothing.
Victoria left.
The moment her footsteps disappeared upstairs, Sophie’s shoulders dropped.
It was so subtle another person might have missed it.
Daniel did not.
He sat beside her.
Maria remained in the doorway.
“Sophie.”
His daughter stared at her hands.
“What happened?”
She swallowed.
“She said you were going to send me away.”
Daniel froze.
“What?”
“She said after the wedding, I might go to boarding school.”
Daniel’s stomach tightened.
“I never said that.”
“I know.”
“Did Victoria tell you I did?”
Sophie nodded.
“When?”
“A few weeks ago.”
Daniel’s mind moved quickly.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“She said you didn’t want me to know yet.”
A cold pressure spread through his chest.
“What else did she say?”
Sophie’s eyes filled.
“She said things would be easier for you if I wasn’t here all the time.”
Maria looked away.
Daniel felt the room become very still.
“Sophie, listen carefully. I have never planned to send you away. Not for one day.”
His daughter nodded, but tears were already slipping down her cheeks.
Daniel reached for her.
She hesitated.
That hesitation hurt him more than anything Victoria had said.
He opened his arms.
Sophie moved into them.
For several moments, Daniel simply held his daughter.
Then Sophie whispered against his shoulder.
“She said Mom would have wanted you to move on.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
His late wife, Caroline, had died four years earlier after a sudden cerebral aneurysm.
Sophie had been seven.
There were subjects Daniel could discuss calmly in business meetings involving millions of dollars.
Caroline was not one of them.
He pulled back.
“What exactly did Victoria say about your mother?”
Sophie rubbed her face.
“She said Mom wouldn’t want me ruining your new life.”
Daniel’s jaw clenched.
“And today?”
Sophie looked toward Maria.
Maria finally spoke.
“I heard raised voices from the living room. When I came in, Miss Lane had Sophie by the wrist.”
Victoria’s voice suddenly came from the staircase.
“I was stopping her from running upstairs.”
Daniel turned.
Victoria stood halfway down the stairs.
“I thought I told you—”
“No,” she interrupted. “I am not going to stand upstairs while the two of you make me sound like some monster.”
Sophie immediately shifted closer to Daniel.
He noticed.
Victoria noticed too.
Her expression flickered.
Daniel stood.
“Did you tell Sophie I planned to send her to boarding school?”
Victoria stared at him.
“I told her we had discussed educational options.”
“We never discussed boarding school.”
“I was trying to prepare her for change.”
“Did you tell her Caroline would think she was ruining my new life?”
Victoria’s mouth opened.
Nothing came out.
That silence answered him.
“Daniel,” she finally said, “you have no idea what I’ve been dealing with.”
“I’m beginning to.”
“She resents me.”
“She’s eleven.”
“She manipulates you.”
Daniel’s eyes narrowed.
“Be careful.”
Victoria gave a humorless smile.
“There. That. Every single time she cries, you immediately assume everyone else is wrong.”
Maria stepped forward.
“Sir, may I say something?”
Victoria rolled her eyes.
“Of course Maria has an opinion.”
Daniel ignored her.
“Go ahead.”
Maria clasped her hands.
“This is not the first time Sophie has been frightened.”
Daniel turned slowly.
“What do you mean?”
Maria looked at Sophie before answering.
“Over the past month, she has asked me several times whether children can be removed from a family if a new parent does not want them.”
Daniel felt the blood leave his face.
“She asked you that?”
“Yes.”
“And you didn’t tell me?”
Maria’s voice broke slightly.
“I should have. I thought it was anxiety about the wedding. I didn’t understand where it came from.”
Victoria shook her head.
“This is insane.”
Sophie suddenly spoke.
“You deleted Mom’s pictures.”
Everyone stopped.
Daniel looked at her.
“What pictures?”
“The ones in the hallway.”
He turned toward the hallway.
He had been so busy the past two weeks that he had barely noticed the changes Victoria had been making in preparation for the wedding.
Now he pictured the gallery wall.
Caroline’s photographs had been there for years.
Daniel walked into the hallway.
Sophie followed.
Maria followed.
Victoria came last.
Daniel stood in front of the wall.
There were new framed photographs.
Daniel and Victoria at a fundraiser.
Daniel and Victoria skiing in Aspen.
Daniel and Victoria at a company gala.
Sophie appeared in only one photograph.
Caroline appeared in none.
Daniel stared.
“Where are they?”
Victoria sighed.
“They’re stored safely.”
“Where?”
“In the basement.”
Daniel looked at her.
“You removed photographs of Sophie’s mother and put them in the basement?”
“We’re building a future.”
“This is Sophie’s home.”
“And it is supposed to become mine too.”
Daniel’s voice became dangerously quiet.
“It was Caroline’s home before it was ever yours.”
Victoria’s face changed.
There it was again.
The coldness.
“You said you were ready to move forward.”
“I said I was ready to marry you. I never said I was willing to erase my daughter’s mother.”
Victoria pressed her lips together.
“You are making this dramatic.”
Daniel looked back at Sophie.
Her small face held an expression he would remember for the rest of his life.
Relief.
Not because he had solved anything.
Because he finally believed her.
He turned to Maria.
“Take Sophie upstairs.”
Victoria stepped forward.
“No. We need to deal with this together.”
Daniel looked at her.
“No, we don’t.”
Sophie reached for Maria’s hand.
Before leaving, she paused.
“Dad?”
“Yes?”
“There’s something else.”
Victoria’s head snapped toward her.
Sophie saw it.
Daniel did too.
“What?”
Sophie hesitated.
Then she reached into the pocket of her sweater and pulled out a small silver key.
“I found this in Victoria’s desk.”
Victoria went pale.
For the first time since Daniel had arrived home, she looked genuinely afraid.
Daniel held out his hand.
Sophie placed the key in his palm.
“What does it open?”
Sophie whispered.
“The locked room downstairs.”
Daniel looked toward Victoria.
May you like
She did not answer.
And in that moment, he knew the real problem inside his house was much bigger than anything his daughter had yet told him.
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