Chapter 5
Sofia wanted to know everything about Clara.
Not the organization.
Not who betrayed her.
Clara.
“What food does she hate?”
“Peas.”
“Does she still sleep with the white rabbit?”
“She stopped at three.”
“Why?”
I looked at Clara.
She looked away.
Helena answered from across the room.
“Because she was too old for it.”
Sofia’s face changed.
I did not miss that.
Neither did Clara.
“What happened to the rabbit?” I asked.
Helena sighed.
“This is ridiculous.”
“Answer.”
“I removed it.”
Clara whispered, “She threw it away.”
I stared at my sister.
“Why?”
“She cried for it every time she came to this room.”
The room went cold.
Sofia closed her eyes.
Clara had been mourning a mother breathing less than twenty feet away.
And Helena removed the one thing that comforted her.
“Children need to stop clinging eventually,” Helena said.
Sofia looked at her.
“She was three.”
Helena shrugged.
“Exactly. Old enough to learn people disappear.”
My hands tightened.
Cruelty sounded so natural in Helena’s voice that I wondered how often I had mistaken it for strength.
Clara moved closer to Sofia.
Not touching.
Closer.
Sofia noticed but did not reach for her.
Good.
She understood.
I asked the question I had been avoiding.
“Why keep Sofia alive?”
Helena smiled faintly.
“There. Finally.”
Sofia looked at me.
“They wanted something.”
“What?”
“A recording.”
Marco cursed quietly.
Helena turned toward him.
Too late.
Sofia continued.
“Before the lake house, I heard them arguing in your father’s old study.”
My expression changed.
“My father had been dead two years.”
“That’s why they used it.”
She looked at Helena.
“They thought nobody went inside anymore.”
“What did you hear?”
Sofia’s eyes hardened.
“Your sister telling Marco that you were easier to control when you were grieving.”
Silence.
I looked at Helena.
Sofia continued.
“That wasn’t the worst part.”
My breathing slowed.
“She said if they ever needed to break you completely, they would start with Clara.”
Helena stopped smiling.
May you like
And I understood why Sofia had survived four years.
Somewhere, she had hidden proof of what she heard.
