Chapter 1 - THE LOCKED DOOR
The first thing I heard when I walked into my house was my six-year-old daughter screaming my name from behind a locked door.
“Daddy!”
I dropped my suitcase in the foyer.
“Sophie?”
The scream came again.
Not from her bedroom.
From the little garden room off the back hall—the one my late wife, Grace, used to fill with flowers.
I ran.
The brass knob would not turn.
“Daddy, please!”
I hit the door with my shoulder once.
Twice.
The frame cracked on the third hit.
Sophie was curled on the floor in her pajamas, clutching a faded blue blanket and a wooden music box that had belonged to Grace.
My daughter’s face was red from crying.
Behind me, my new wife, Allison, appeared barefoot on the tile.
“What are you doing?”
I stared at her.
“What am I doing?”
She folded her arms. “She locked herself in there.”
Sophie shook her head so hard her hair stuck to her cheeks.
“No.”
Allison’s voice sharpened. “Sophie.”
My daughter flinched.
That single movement changed the room.
I knelt.
“Look at me, sweetheart. Did you lock the door?”
“No.”
“Who did?”
She pointed.
At Allison.
My wife’s face went white.
“She’s confused.”
Sophie clutched the music box tighter.
“She said Mommy is gone and I have to stop loving her.”
The house went silent.
Allison whispered, “That is not what I said.”
Sophie looked at me.
“She said there can only be one mommy in this house.”
I stood slowly.
I picked Sophie up.
Allison stepped toward us.
“Michael, you are not going to turn one bad evening into—”
“Do not touch her.”
She stopped.
Then Sophie whispered into my neck.
“Daddy?”
“Yes?”
“Aunt Caroline told her to do it.”
I looked toward the hallway.
My sister did not live with us.
She was not supposed to have a key.
May you like
Then the front door opened.
And Caroline walked in.
