Chapter 7 - Sophie Wanted Marcus To Listen
Police found Sophie before midnight.
She wasn't hiding.
She was working at a twenty-four-hour grocery store less than six miles from the Reed house under the name Sophie Grant.
Her surname had changed after she entered foster care.
She agreed to speak with Detective Bennett.
Marcus was not permitted into the first interview.
He waited in the hallway for almost two hours.
When Bennett emerged, her expression was complicated.
“Sophie admits contacting Maya.”
Marcus stood.
“She approached my daughter?”
“Yes.”
“Arrest her.”
“Marcus.”
“She used a dead woman's name.”
“She denies sending the placement referral.”
“Do you believe her?”
“I believe evidence.”
That stopped him.
Bennett continued.
“Sophie says she learned Claire was dating you about eight months ago.”
“How?”
“Social media.”
Claire posted photographs.
Family dinners.
Vacations.
Maya's school play.
A life Sophie recognized because Jenna's daughter was in it.
“What did Sophie want?”
“To warn you.”
“By frightening my child?”
“She says she never told Maya her father wanted her gone.”
Marcus felt the familiar danger of competing stories.
“Then what did she say?”
According to Sophie, she had gone to the yellow house because she learned Claire planned to take Maya there.
She claimed she entered while Claire was out of the room and told Maya only one thing.
Ask your dad about Sophie Mercer.
Marcus frowned.
“Maya didn't remember that.”
“She remembered the part about Jenna.”
Children remembered emotion, not transcripts.
Marcus knew that now.
Bennett allowed him to speak with Sophie under supervision.
She looked younger than seventeen.
Thin.
Guarded.
Her hands remained folded tightly in her lap.
Marcus sat opposite her.
“You knew my wife.”
Sophie's eyes filled.
“She saved my life.”
Marcus couldn't speak.
Sophie explained.
After her mother disappeared with the abusive boyfriend, Jenna continued trying to locate her.
She eventually found a relative willing to contact child protective services.
Sophie entered foster care.
She never saw Jenna again.
Years later, she learned Jenna had died.
“I wanted to tell you she didn't fail,” Sophie said.
Marcus looked down.
For three years, he had carried questions about Jenna's final months.
She had seemed distracted.
Exhausted.
Sometimes distant.
He had wondered whether he missed signs of unhappiness in their marriage.
Now he understood she had been carrying another child's safety inside her heart.
“What does Claire have to do with this?”
Sophie's expression hardened.
“She told the school Jenna was unstable.”
Claire, waiting in another room, had never mentioned that.
Marcus felt anger rise again.
“What exactly did she say?”
“That Jenna was obsessed. That she was violating boundaries. That people shouldn't trust her judgment.”
“Did that affect the investigation?”
“I don't know.”
“Then why blame her?”
“Because my caseworker showed me records years later. Claire's report was in them.”
Marcus forced himself not to turn suspicion into fact.
“What did you do when you learned Claire was with me?”
“I watched.”
“Watched?”
“Online.”
“Then?”
“I saw Maya.”
Sophie looked ashamed.
“She looked like Jenna.”
Marcus swallowed.
“She does.”
“I got scared.”
“Of Claire?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Sophie leaned forward.
“Because Claire did the same thing to Maya that she did to Jenna.”
“What thing?”
“She made everyone think the person with the problem was the one asking for help.”
Marcus thought of Maya being described as aggressive, clingy, unstable.
He thought of Jenna being described as obsessed.
Patterns mattered.
But patterns weren't proof.
“Did you forge my signature?”
“No.”
“Create the fake email?”
“No.”
“Write the note on Maya's birthday card?”
“No.”
“Put photographs in Claire's car?”
“No.”
“Who did?”
Sophie shook her head.
“I don't know.”
Marcus believed she knew more than she was saying.
Then Sophie reached into her pocket.
Bennett tensed.
Sophie slowly placed an old USB drive on the table.
“Jenna gave me this.”
Marcus stared.
“When?”
“The last time I saw her.”
That made no sense.
Sophie had said she never saw Jenna after entering foster care.
Marcus looked at her.
“You just lied to me.”
Sophie began crying.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Jenna made me promise.”
Marcus's chest tightened.
“Promise what?”
May you like
Sophie looked at the USB drive.
“That I would never give this to you unless someone came after Maya.”
