Chapter 7 - SOFIA’S SECRET
I thought hearing the truth would give me clarity.
It didn’t.
It gave me noise.
Every memory from the last seven months crashed into another. Clara crying over a positive test. Clara refusing champagne. Clara pressing my palm to her stomach and smiling when she said the baby moved.
All of it rearranged itself into something ugly.
“When?” I asked.
She sat very still.
“When did there stop being a baby?”
Her lips trembled. “There was a positive test in March.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
“I lost it early.”
“How early?”
“Before I told your parents.”
“So the entire pregnancy everyone celebrated was after you already knew?”
She whispered, “Yes.”
Camila swore under her breath.
Clara began talking fast. She said she panicked. She said she could not bear another failure. She said she kept thinking she would tell me tomorrow, then next week, then after the anniversary party.
I almost believed the fear in her voice.
Then Sofia said, “That’s not what you told Uncle Nico.”
The room stopped.
Clara stared at her.
“What did you say?”
Sofia pressed against my leg.
“You said Daddy signs after everybody sees the tummy.”
Clara stood. “She does not understand adult conversations.”
I crouched beside my daughter.
“Did Clara ever tell you not to talk about the belly?”
Sofia nodded.
“What did she say would happen?”
Her eyes filled.
“She said you’d think I was making trouble.”
I swallowed.
“Anything else?”
“She said maybe I would go to a school where kids sleep there.”
Clara’s face lost color.
I turned slowly.
“You threatened my four-year-old with boarding school?”
“I never threatened her.”
Sofia reached into the pocket of her dress again.
This time she pulled out my old tablet.
“I pushed the red button when she was yelling at Uncle Nico,” she whispered.
May you like
On the screen was a voice recording.
Twenty-three minutes long.
