Chapter 4 - Sophie Wouldn’t Come Out
The silence after Daniel’s question felt more damning than any confession.
Vanessa opened her mouth once.
Closed it again.
She looked from Daniel to Ethan, then to the dark space under the bed where Sophie kept crying.
Finally she tried the smallest, weakest defense possible.
“You don’t understand.”
Daniel’s eyes hardened.
“No,” he said. “I understand enough.”
He crouched immediately, leaving Vanessa standing alone in the middle of the room.
“Ethan,” he said more gently, “move back a little.”
Ethan did, but only enough to make space. His body remained half-shielding the opening beneath the bed.
Daniel lowered himself to the polished wooden floor and looked under.
Sophie was pressed all the way against the wall, blanket twisted in her fists, face blotchy with terror. She was too frightened even to crawl out for her father.
That nearly broke him.
“Hey, sweetheart,” he whispered. “Daddy’s here.”
She only cried harder.
It took both him and Ethan coaxing her before she finally inched forward. Ethan reached first, because she would not let anyone else touch her.
He carefully pulled her into his lap.
The sight was unbearable.
An eight-year-old with a red welt on his cheek, cradling a sobbing toddler under the bed as if this had become familiar.
Daniel stood up slowly with something cold and vicious tightening in his chest.
Vanessa backed toward the door.
“It wasn’t what it looked like,” she said.
Ethan, still kneeling with Sophie clinging to him, flinched at the sound of her voice.
Daniel saw that too.
Every tiny reaction.
Every truth he had missed.
He moved to the bedroom doorway and closed it.
Not violently. Quietly.
Then he locked it.
Vanessa went pale.
May you like
“We’re not done,” he said.
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