Chapter 7 - ALLISON’S CONFESSION
“I didn’t know about the sale,” Allison said.
We stood on the porch.
Caroline remained by the SUV.
“Then why are you here?”
“Allison,” Caroline warned.
I ignored her.
“Allison?”
She wiped her face.
“Caroline said Grace left documents proving you were emotionally unstable after she died.”
“What documents?”
“I never saw them.”
“Yet you believed her?”
“I believed some of it.”
“Why?”
Allison looked at the lake.
“Because every time Sophie cried for Grace, I felt like I was failing.”
“That is not instability.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
She covered her face.
“I wanted Sophie to choose me.”
The sentence was finally honest.
Not money.
Not guardianship.
Jealousy.
“I thought if we stopped displaying Grace everywhere, Sophie would attach to me.”
“You hid her mother’s pictures.”
“Yes.”
“You took the music box.”
“Yes.”
“You locked her in the garden room.”
Allison looked sick.
“I put her there for ten minutes because she wouldn’t stop screaming at me.”
“It was forty-three.”
She stared at me.
I had checked the security log.
Forty-three minutes.
“I lost track.”
“You forgot a crying six-year-old behind a locked door.”
Caroline stepped forward.
“That is enough.”
I turned.
“No. It isn’t.”
Allison looked at Caroline.
“You told me it would help.”
Caroline’s eyes narrowed.
“Don’t do this.”
“You said Sophie had to detach from Grace before she could bond with me.”
“I said boundaries matter.”
“You gave me the note that said NO MORE SHRINES.”
I went still.
I had assumed Allison wrote it.
She nodded.
“That was Caroline.”
Caroline’s face changed.
“She's lying.”
Allison laughed bitterly.
“You wrote half the things I said to Sophie.”
I stared at my sister.
“What things?”
Allison began listing them.
“Mommy is gone.”
“Daddy gets sad when you talk about her.”
“You need to stop living in the past.”
“Real families move forward.”
Each sentence landed like a slap.
Then Allison whispered one more.
“If Sophie keeps choosing Grace, Michael will never fully choose you.”
I looked at Caroline.
There it was.
She had not only manipulated a child.
She had weaponized Allison’s insecurity.
Caroline opened the SUV door.
“I’m done with this.”
Rachel stepped onto the porch.
“No, you’re not.”
She held up her phone.
“I just found the document you were looking for.”
Caroline froze.
May you like
Rachel smiled without warmth.
“And it proves Grace knew exactly what you were planning.”
