Chapter 3

Sophie's shrill screams woke me up at seven in the morning.

"Where is he?" she sobbed from her bedroom down the hall. "I can't go to school without him!"

I bolted out of bed, threw open my door, and rushed straight into her room.

Sophie was sitting on the floor in her navy school uniform, rubbing her swollen red eyes.

"Sophie, what's wrong?" I asked, dropping to my knees beside her. "What's missing?"

"Barnaby!" she wailed, pulling her little knees to her chest. "I need Barnaby! He has to sit in my front backpack pocket or I'll have a bad day!"

Barnaby. The gray plush bunny with the floppy ear that I had hand-stitched for her third birthday.

"Don't cry, baby," I whispered gently. "Mommy remembers where he sleeps."

I went straight to her walk-in closet. He always lived in the wicker basket on the top shelf, wrapped in her baby blanket.

The basket was gone. The shelf was filled with labeled pink storage bins.

I checked under her bed. Only dust; I checked behind her bookshelf, inside her toy chest, under her pillows.

Nothing.

Every single drawer in her room had been rearranged. The hand-painted growth chart on the wall was painted over.

Even the framed photograph of Sophie and me building sandcastles had been replaced by a portrait of Mark, Claire, and Sophie at Disneyland.

They had scrubbed every trace of me from her room.

"Are you tearing the house apart already?"

Claire's sugary voice came from the doorway.

She stood there holding a takeout latte in one hand and the gray stuffed bunny in the other.

She was already wearing her trench coat. Mark had unlocked the kitchen door for her.

"Barnaby!" Sophie screamed.

She scrambled off the floor. She didn't look at my outstretched hands. She ran right past me and threw her arms around Claire's waist.

"There's my good girl," Claire cooed, sinking to one knee.

She handed Sophie the toy and stroked her curls with practiced ease. "Did you forget? Barnaby doesn't sleep in the dark closet anymore. He sleeps in the hallway linen cabinet right next to my rosewater spray."

"I remembered, but I couldn't reach the latch," Sophie sniffled, clutching the bunny tight against her chest.

Claire smoothed Sophie's collar, then looked up over her head.

Her eyes locked onto mine. Her lips curved into a sharp, poisonous smirk.

"See?" her face said. "You're a stranger in your own house."

A knot of ice twisted in my chest, but my expression didn't break. I stood up slowly and brushed off the knees of my slacks.

"Sophie," I said, keeping my voice perfectly calm and steady. "Your father is downstairs making pancakes. Go grab your backpack."

Sophie looked up at Claire, waiting for permission. Claire gave her a warm nod. "Go on, sweetie. I'll drive you in five minutes."

Sophie turned and bolted down the stairs. The second Sophie's footsteps disappeared into the kitchen, Claire's warm smile vanished. She stood up, closing the bedroom door halfway behind her.

She stepped directly into my personal space, her perfume suffocating the air between us.

"You're pathetic, Lena," Claire whispered, her voice dripping with venom. "Did you see how she ran to me? In her eyes, you're just the woman who abandoned her."

"I was saving my dying mother, Claire."

"Sophie doesn't know that," Claire sneered. "She only knows that I was the one who held her hand during her vaccinations, packed her lunches, and dried her tears. Mark loves me. Sophie depends on me."

Claire leaned in until her lips almost touched my ear.

"You staying here will only destroy the stability Sophie finally found. If you have any decency left as a mother, pack your bags and disappear."

I didn't flinch. I didn't back away.

I reached out and slowly smoothed the crooked lapel of Claire's designer coat.

My fingers lingered just over her collarbone until her breath hitched in surprise.

"You talk very loud for someone living on borrowed time," I said softly.

Claire's jaw tightened.

I stepped around her, pulling open the door.

"I'll be picking Sophie up from school at three o'clock," I said over my shoulder. "Don't bother showing up, Claire."