Chapter 4
Sofia disappeared four years earlier after a fire at the Caruso lake house.
At least that was what I had been told.
There was enough damage that nobody questioned why the body returned sealed.
I questioned it.
I questioned everything.
Helena stood beside me through all of it.
She held Clara while I identified Sofia’s bracelet from the belongings recovered near the fire.
The bracelet on Sofia’s wrist now.
I looked at my sister.
“You gave me a bracelet.”
Helena said nothing.
“I buried it.”
Marco looked away.
I felt the room tilt.
Sofia reached beneath her sleeve and showed me a small scar beside the clasp.
“This broke when they took me.”
I stared.
“They?”
“Marco was there.”
I turned.
He raised both hands.
“Vincent, listen—”
I crossed the room.
He stopped talking.
Sofia’s voice came behind me.
“He pulled me from the car.”
My fists tightened.
“That sounds like rescue.”
“It was.”
Marco swallowed.
For one second, confusion slowed my anger.
Sofia continued.
“The car had been tampered with. I lost control near the lake road. Marco found me before anyone else.”
I looked at him.
“You saved her.”
He nodded.
“Then what?”
His face changed.
There it was.
The part that turned rescue into betrayal.
Sofia answered.
“He called Helena.”
I slowly turned toward my sister.
Sofia continued.
“I kept asking for you. Helena told me you were already on the way.”
Helena remained silent.
“Then she gave me something to drink.”
Sofia’s hand tightened around the blanket.
“When I woke up, I was in that room.”
Clara had moved closer without anyone noticing.
She looked at Helena.
“Aunt Helena put Mommy in the wall?”
Helena’s composure finally cracked.
“Clara, adults are talking.”
My daughter immediately lowered her eyes.
I saw it.
The obedience was too quick.
Too familiar.
I looked at Helena.
“How many times have you spoken to my daughter like that when I wasn’t here?”
She smiled coldly.
“Someone had to raise her properly.”
The answer reached Sofia before it reached me.
She stood so fast the blanket fell.
“You raised my daughter?”
May you like
The terror on her face became fury.
And Helena finally understood Sofia was no longer trapped behind a wall.
