Chapter 2 - The Blue BoxDamien entered the mansion without ringing.
“Sofia?”
His voice carried across the marble foyer.
No answer.
He moved quickly toward the fitness wing.
Halfway there, Bernice appeared.
She had changed expressions.
The cold woman from Sofia’s video was gone.
Now she looked concerned.
“Damien?”
He stopped.
“Where is Amelia?”
Bernice blinked.
“You’re home early.”
“Where is my daughter?”
Something in his voice made her shoulders stiffen.
“In her room.”
“What happened in the gym?”
Bernice’s eyes barely moved.
“That depends on what Sofia told you.”
Damien pulled out his phone.
“I saw it.”
A pause.
Then Bernice sighed.
Not frightened.
Irritated.
“You saw thirty seconds without context.”
“I saw my eight-year-old daughter crawling on a treadmill while you screamed at her.”
“It was an exercise.”
“It was punishment.”
“It was discipline.”
Damien stared at his mother.
Those words frightened him more than denial would have.
“Where is Amelia?”
Bernice stepped aside.
Damien found his daughter curled against the headboard of her bed.
She was still wearing her exercise clothes.
Her eyes were swollen from crying.
When she saw him, she froze.
For one horrible second, she seemed unsure whether she was allowed to move.
Then Damien opened his arms.
Amelia launched herself from the bed.
“Daddy!”
He caught her.
She wrapped both arms around his neck.
“I’m sorry.”
Damien’s heart twisted.
“For what?”
“I couldn’t do it right.”
He shut his eyes.
“You have nothing to apologize for.”
“Grandma said—”
“I don’t care what Grandma said.”
He pulled back and looked at her.
“Did she hurt you anywhere?”
“My arms hurt.”
“Anywhere else?”
Amelia hesitated.
That hesitation told Damien more than the answer.
“How long has this been happening?”
Her gaze dropped.
“Not every day.”
His stomach tightened.
“How many times?”
“I don’t know.”
“Amelia.”
She whispered, “Since you started going to Chicago.”
Five weeks.
Damien felt sick.
He traveled frequently for work, but he had been calling every night.
Amelia had sounded quiet.
He had assumed she missed him.
He had asked if she was okay.
Every time, she had said yes.
Because Bernice was usually sitting nearby.
Damien brushed a strand of hair from Amelia’s face.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Grandma said you were already angry at me.”
“I was never angry at you.”
“She said you were going away because I was difficult.”
Damien looked toward the doorway.
Bernice stood there.
He had not heard her approach.
“You told her that?”
Bernice folded her arms.
“I told her your work requires concentration.”
“You told my child I leave because she’s difficult.”
“She needed consequences.”
“For what?”
Bernice’s gaze moved to Amelia.
Damien immediately stepped between them.
“No. Look at me.”
Bernice did.
“What did she do?”
“She took something that doesn’t belong to her.”
Amelia shook her head.
“I didn’t!”
“The blue key,” Bernice said.
Damien’s skin prickled.
“What blue key?”
Bernice answered too quickly.
“I don’t know. Something she invented.”
Damien pulled out his phone and displayed Sofia’s recording.
“Then why are you asking her where her mother put it?”
Silence.
Amelia squeezed Damien’s hand.
“Daddy?”
“Yes?”
“Mommy told me not to give it to Grandma.”
Bernice’s head snapped toward her.
Damien caught the movement.
“When?”
Amelia swallowed.
“Before Mommy went to the hospital the last time.”
Damien crouched.
“What exactly did she say?”
Amelia thought carefully.
“She said if Grandma ever asked about the blue key, I should tell you.”
Damien’s chest tightened.
His wife Elise had spent the final months of her life battling aggressive ovarian cancer.
Pain medication.
Hospital visits.
Treatment.
Exhaustion.
There were days when she could barely stay awake.
Damien had assumed some of her strange comments near the end had been fear.
Or medication.
Once, Elise had told him, Your mother is hiding money inside the house.
He had dismissed it.
Bernice had told him Elise was confused.
Damien had believed his mother.
“What blue box?” he asked Amelia.
“I don’t know where it is now.”
Bernice spoke from the doorway.
“This is absurd.”
Damien stood.
“You’re not staying near her.”
“You’re throwing me out of my own house?”
“This house is mine.”
Bernice smiled.
It was not a pleasant smile.
“You should read the trust before saying that.”
Damien stared at her.
Bernice turned away.
“I’ll have my attorney call you.”
“Mom.”
She stopped.
“Where did you get Elise’s blue jewelry box?”
Bernice did not turn around.
“What are you talking about?”
“It’s in Sofia’s video.”
That finally broke her composure.
Only slightly.
But Damien saw it.
The same flash of fear Amelia had seen.
Bernice recovered.
“You’re imagining things.”
She walked away.
Damien waited until her footsteps disappeared.
Then Amelia tugged his sleeve.
“Daddy?”
“Yes?”
“The box in the video isn’t Mommy’s box.”
He looked down.
“What?”
Amelia lowered her voice.
“Mommy’s real one has a scratch shaped like a moon.”
Damien remembered it.
A tiny crescent gouge near the latch.
He had caused it accidentally while moving furniture years earlier.
“The one Grandma has is fake,” Amelia whispered.
“Then why would she have a copy?”
Amelia looked toward her closet.
“Because she’s been searching for the real one.”
Damien followed her gaze.
The closet door was slightly open.
Inside, clothes were hanging crookedly.
Drawers had been disturbed.
May you like
Then Amelia said something that made him forget how to breathe.
“She found Mommy’s letter yesterday.”
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