Chapter 4: What Daniel Built
I found Daniel in the kitchen.
He was standing at the counter with his back to me, filling a glass of water.
Sophie sat at the table, both hands wrapped around a mug of warm milk that Claire must have prepared before everything fell apart.
Lily had appeared from somewhere and was sitting beside Sophie, watching her with the focused seriousness that four-year-olds reserve for things they've been keeping secret and are relieved to finally have discovered.
"You built a passage inside my house," I said.
Daniel set the glass down.
He turned around.
"Yes."
"While I was living here.
While Claire was living here.
While my daughter was sleeping ten feet away." I kept my voice level.
I didn't trust what would happen if I raised it.
"You cut through the walls of my home and built a hidden room and put a child in it and said nothing to me."
"I know how it sounds."
"I need you to explain it to me like I'm a reasonable person who deserves an explanation."
Daniel pulled out a chair and sat down.
He looked tired in a way that went past one night.
"Mara — Amy — she called me eight months ago.
She'd tracked me down through an old mutual friend.
She knew she was running out of time and she was terrified about what would happen to Sophie."
"Why didn't she call me?"
"She tried." He looked at me steadily.
"Three times.
You'd changed your number twice since you two ended.
The third time she found a number that worked, a woman answered." He paused.
"Claire answered."
I turned to look at the doorway.
Claire was standing there.
She didn't deny it.
"You spoke to her," I said.
"Once," Claire said.
"About two years ago.
She asked for you.
I told her you were married and had a daughter and that she should leave our family alone." Her voice was careful and even.
"I didn't know about Sophie.
She didn't tell me about Sophie on that call.
I didn't know any of it."
"So she called Daniel instead," I said.
"She had no one else." Daniel leaned forward.
"Her family had cut her off years before.
She had a friend helping her, a woman named Greta, but Greta was elderly and couldn't take a child long-term.
Mara knew Sophie needed her father.
She knew that was you.
But she was also terrified that if she just handed Sophie over through official channels, something would go wrong.
That someone would intervene."
"What someone?"
Daniel's expression shifted.
"Mara wasn't just hiding from her family when you knew her.
She was hiding from her brother.
His name is Victor.
He's been looking for her — and for Sophie — for years."
Sophie's head came up from her mug.
Daniel looked at her gently.
"It's okay, sweetheart."
Sophie looked back down.
Her fingers tightened around the mug.
"Why is he looking for her?" I said.
Daniel stood up.
He reached into his jacket pocket and placed a second photograph on the table.
This one was newer.
A man, mid-forties, standing outside what looked like a courthouse.
"Because Mara left with something that belongs to him," Daniel said.
"Or at least, that's what he believes."
May you like
He tapped the photograph.
"And three days ago, he found out where Sophie is."
