Chapter 2 - Sophie Finally Said Her Name
Walter did not open the bathroom door immediately.
He took out his phone instead.
One text to the estate security chief.
WEST BATHROOM HALL. DO NOT LET ANYONE LEAVE THIS FLOOR.
Then he put the phone away and looked at Sophie.
“Is the person outside the same person who told you to hide?”
Sophie nodded.
“Do you know who it is?”
Another nod.
Walter kept his voice quiet.
“Tell me.”
Sophie swallowed.
“Aunt Helena.”
The name landed harder than Walter expected.
His older sister.
The woman who had organized every Hayes family event for nearly twenty years.
The woman who helped raise Sophie after Julia left.
The woman who spent two years telling Walter not to chase someone who had “made her choice.”
Walter looked toward the door again.
No sound now.
“Why did Aunt Helena send you here?”
Sophie wiped her cheek.
“Because I asked about Mom.”
“What did you ask?”
Sophie looked frightened that answering might get her in trouble.
Walter held out one hand.
“You cannot get in trouble for telling me the truth.”
She reached for his fingers.
“At lunch, Mrs. Reed said tonight looked like the party when Mom went away.”
Walter frowned.
Mrs. Reed had worked in the mansion for twenty-three years.
Sophie continued.
“I asked Aunt Helena if Mom was here that night.”
Walter felt his chest tighten.
“What did she say?”
“She told me to stop talking about it.”
“And then?”
“I said I remembered Mom crying upstairs.”
Walter said nothing.
Sophie’s voice became smaller.
“Aunt Helena got mad.”
“How?”
“She grabbed my hand and brought me here.”
“Did she hurt you?”
Sophie shook her head.
“She said it was a game.”
Walter’s jaw hardened.
“What game?”
“She said I had to stay hidden until the party ended. She said you were busy and you would be angry if I came downstairs.”
Walter looked away for one second.
That lie was almost identical to something Helena had once told him about Julia.
Julia doesn’t want to see you tonight.
He had believed it.
Walter stood and lifted Sophie carefully.
“Can I carry you?”
She nodded.
Only then did he pick her up.
When Walter opened the bathroom door, the hallway was empty.
But not completely.
Mrs. Reed stood twenty feet away beside the linen alcove, pale and nervous.
She looked at Sophie in Walter’s arms.
Then toward the stairs.
Walter asked one question.
“Who was just outside this bathroom?”
Mrs. Reed hesitated.
Walter’s voice became colder.
“Who?”
“Miss Helena.”
Sophie buried her face against Walter’s shoulder.
Mrs. Reed continued quickly.
“She came up right after you left the ballroom. I saw her standing at the bathroom door.”
“What was she doing?”
“I don’t know.”
“You heard the handle move?”
Mrs. Reed nodded.
“Yes.”
“Then where did she go?”
“East staircase.”
Walter looked toward it.
Helena knew he had found Sophie.
She had tested the handle.
Realized the bathroom was no longer empty.
Then walked away without explaining herself.
Walter carried Sophie toward the private library instead of returning to the party.
Halfway there, she whispered:
“Dad?”
“Yes?”
“When Mom was in there, Aunt Helena told me not to tell you either.”
Walter stopped.
His daughter had just given him the first direct contradiction to the story he had believed for two years.
And he suddenly knew the party downstairs could wait.
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His marriage had ended in this hallway.
He was finally going to find out why.
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