By then Laura was married to me.
She had Sophie.
A stable home.
A life Natalie believed should have belonged to her.
I felt nauseated listening to it.
This wasn’t a romance that developed after grief.
Natalie had entered my life with a history.
And I had known none of it.
I returned home that evening to discover Sophie was gone.
My mother had been watching her.
She said a woman arrived claiming there had been an emergency.
Natalie.
My mother trusted her.
Why wouldn’t she?
Natalie was my wife.
My phone buzzed.
A photograph appeared.
Sophie sitting on a couch.
Felix in her arms.
Terrified.
Natalie sat beside her.
COME ALONE.
A location followed.
An abandoned farmhouse outside town.
I called Detective Marsh.
He told me not to go.
I went anyway.
But I didn't go as blindly as Natalie expected.
Pierce contacted police.
Aaron followed at a distance.
Maya stayed on the phone with Detective Marsh.
The farmhouse stood at the end of an old gravel road.
When I entered, I saw Felix lying on the floor.
A note was pinned beneath one paw.
Laura’s handwriting.
I almost collapsed.
There was one sentence.
Natalie does not know Marcus survived.
I heard movement behind me.
Natalie stood in the doorway.
Sophie wasn’t with her.
“Where is she?”
“She’s safe.”
“Where?”
“You never listen until someone scares you.”
I stepped toward her.
“Where is my daughter?”
Natalie smiled faintly.
“You still sound like Laura.”
“Don't say her name.”
“That was always your problem.”
“My problem?”
“You made her perfect after she died.”
“You abused my daughter.”
“I tried to correct what Laura taught her.”
“You locked her in a room.”
“She kept rejecting me.”
“She was grieving her mother.”
“I was supposed to become her mother.”
The words hung between us.
Not help.