Chapter 9: Learning the Way Back
“Our home,” I said.
“But only if you want to go there.”
Sophie looked at Emma.
“Will Claire be there?”
“Never again.”
“Will her clothes?”
Rachel touched my shoulder.
“I can clear them out before you arrive.”
“No,” Sophie said.
“I want to help.”
Emma shook her head.
“I don’t want to see her things.”
“Then you won’t,” I said.
“Rachel and I will pack them.
You can stay with Aunt Teresa.”
Teresa arrived at the house that evening after driving straight from the airport.
Emma recognized her from old family photographs and stopped in the hallway.
“Are you really Aunt Teresa?”
Teresa opened her passport and held it out.
“Really Teresa.
Terrible passport picture.”
Emma examined it, then looked at her.
“Why didn’t you come?”
Teresa’s smile vanished.
“Because Claire told me your father had forbidden it.”
“Did you believe her too?”
“For too long.”
Sophie folded her arms.
“All the adults believed Claire.”
Teresa nodded.
“That is the painful truth.”
I sat on the bottom stair.
“And the children paid for it.”
Sophie finally looked at me.
“Mom told me to give you the letter if Claire tried to take us away.
But I waited.”
“You were eleven.”
“I thought you chose Claire.”
“I should have made that impossible to believe.”
“You didn’t call us.”
“I called numbers Claire controlled.
I accepted excuses because facing your anger frightened me.”
“So you gave up?”
The question bent me forward.
I covered my face, unable to answer.
Rachel sat beside me.
“Daniel, look at her.”
I lifted my head.
Sophie’s cheeks were wet.
“Say it.”
“I gave up too soon,” I said.
“I failed you.”
Emma began crying beside Teresa.
“I will not ask either of you to pretend that didn’t happen,” I continued.
“I can only show up tomorrow, and the day after that, and every day you let me.”
Sophie crossed the hallway slowly.
She did not hug me.
She sat on the stair one step above mine.
“Start tomorrow,” she said.
The next morning, Margaret arrived carrying two cardboard boxes.
Rachel met her at the door.
“What is that?” I asked.
“Every payment Claire gave me.
I spent some on the girls, but I sold my car this morning.”
“You don’t have to hand us your life.”
“I have to hand back what was never mine.”
Margaret set bank records on the table.
“I also wrote down every date Claire visited, every lie she told, and every time the girls asked to call you.”
Sophie entered the kitchen.
“Did you write down the night I climbed out the window?”
“Yes.”
“You found me at the bus station.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you let me call Dad then?”
Margaret’s shoulders shook.
“Because Claire convinced me he would reject you, and I was afraid to watch that happen.”
“You were protecting yourself,” Sophie said.
Margaret closed her eyes.
“Yes.”
Sophie placed the notebook back on the table.
“That is the first honest answer you’ve given me.”
A knock sounded.
Julian stood outside with a sealed evidence receipt.
“The police copied my phone,” he said.
“They gave it back.”
I did not invite him inside immediately.
“What do you want?”
“To show Sophie something.”
He opened a folder on the phone.
Hundreds of unedited photographs appeared—Sophie and Emma sitting at Margaret’s table, looking toward the camera.
“My mother told me to erase the originals,” Julian said.
“I saved them.”
“Why?”
“Because Emma looked scared.”
Sophie took the phone.
One video showed Claire holding up cue cards while Emma repeated, “Daddy, I don’t want to come home.”
Emma watched from the doorway.
“I never said that,” she whispered.
“I know,” I replied.
Julian swiped to the next recording.
Claire’s voice said, “After the trust clears, Daniel won’t have daughters or money.”
From outside came the slam of a car door.
A court officer walked up the path carrying a sealed envelope.
“Daniel Mercer?” she called.
May you like
“You’ve been ordered to appear tomorrow.
Claire Holloway is challenging the girls’ return to your custody.”
