Chapter 5: The Man Named Victor
I picked up the photograph.
The man in it was broad-shouldered, well-dressed, the kind of face that had learned to look patient while it waited for something it intended to take.
He was standing outside the courthouse with two other men, both of whom were looking at him the way people look at someone they work for rather than someone they know.
"How did he find out where she is?" I said.
"Greta." Daniel sat back down.
"She's eighty-one years old and she was trying to help.
She told someone she trusted.
That person told someone else." He spread his hands.
"It moved fast."
"How long do we have?"
"I don't know.
That's why I came tonight.
I'd been checking on Sophie twice a week through the passage — Mara made me promise to stay close until Sophie was settled somewhere safe.
But when I heard about Victor, I couldn't wait any longer." He looked at me.
"You needed to know.
All of it.
Tonight."
I set the photograph down.
I looked at Sophie.
She was watching me again.
That same careful, measuring look she'd had in the dark behind the wall.
Like she was trying to decide something about me and hadn't finished yet.
"Sophie," I said.
"How old are you?"
She held up three fingers.
Then, after a moment's consideration, a fourth.
"Almost four," I said.
She nodded.
"Were you scared?
Living back there?"
She considered this seriously.
"Sometimes.
But Lily brought me bread." She glanced at Lily.
"And crackers."
Lily looked extremely pleased with herself.
I looked at Claire.
Claire was watching Sophie with an expression I couldn't fully read — something complicated moving behind her eyes, not hostility, not warmth exactly, but something that was working its way toward a decision.
"We need a lawyer," I said.
"Tonight if possible.
And we need to understand what Victor actually wants, because if he has any legal claim to Sophie—"
"He doesn't," Daniel said.
"Mara left a letter with a solicitor.
A formal letter establishing you as Sophie's father and naming you as her intended guardian.
She had a DNA test done privately eight months ago, when she first contacted me.
The results are part of the legal file."
"Then why hasn't the solicitor contacted me?"
"Because Mara asked them to wait.
She wanted me to tell you first.
She was afraid of how you'd react to a stranger's letter." He paused.
"She remembered you as someone who needed to understand things before he could accept them."
I didn't know what to do with that.
I sat with it for a moment.
"What does Victor want?" I said.
"Specifically."
Daniel was quiet for a beat too long.
"Mara had a recording," he said finally.
"Something Victor did, years ago.
She kept it as protection.
When she passed, she left it with Sophie — sewn into the lining of Sophie's bag." He nodded toward a small worn backpack hanging on the back of Sophie's chair.
"Victor knows it exists.
He wants it back."
The room went very still.
I looked at the backpack.
"Does he know Sophie has it with her?"
May you like
"Yes," Daniel said.
"That's the problem."
