Chapter 6 - Sophia’s Daughter

Sophia’s daughter was named Ava Lane.

Thirteen.

Blonde like her mother.

Living with foster parents outside Baltimore.

Michael could barely understand it.

“How did we not know?”

Sophia sat across from him inside an interview room.

“You were twenty-three and building your career.”

“That doesn’t explain thirteen years.”

She laughed bitterly.

“You never asked why I disappeared for six months.”

“You said you were studying in France.”

“I was pregnant.”

Michael stared.

“Who’s the father?”

Sophia looked away.

“Harold’s son.”

Michael frowned.

“Daniel Mercer?”

“Yes.”

Daniel had been twenty-eight.

Sophia seventeen.

Michael’s face changed.

“He was an adult.”

“Yes.”

“Did Harold know?”

“He found out after Ava was born.”

“What did he do?”

“He paid for everything.”

Michael understood.

Not kindness.

Leverage.

Sophia placed Ava with a private family connected to Harold.

She was allowed supervised visits.

Harold paid expenses.

Then used the secret whenever Sophia resisted him.

“He told me Dad would cut me off if he found out.”

“Dad might have been angry. He wouldn’t abandon you.”

“I know that now.”

“Did Jonathan know?”

“Eventually.”

Michael stared.

“Dad knew about Ava?”

Sophia nodded.

“He found one of Harold’s payments.”

That explained the transfers.

Jonathan had been sending money to Sophia not for gambling debts.

He was secretly helping her establish financial independence from Harold.

“Then why did you keep working with Harold?”

Sophia’s eyes filled.

“Because he said he would tell Ava I abandoned her.”

Michael sat back.

“You did.”

Sophia flinched.

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“I was seventeen!”

“And Emily was almost eight months pregnant when you pushed her down a staircase.”

Sophia looked down.

There was no defense.

Michael continued.

“Did Harold order you to hurt her?”

“No.”

“Did you intend to?”

Sophia began crying.

“I wanted the folder.”

“That wasn’t my question.”

“No.”

She looked at him.

“I grabbed her. She pulled away. I panicked.”

“The camera shows you shoved.”

Sophia closed her eyes.

“Yes.”

“Did you know about the trust?”

“Yes.”

“Did you know Emily losing the baby would prevent it from activating?”

Silence.

Michael felt cold.

“Sophia.”

“I knew.”

His chair scraped backward.

“You knew.”

“I wasn’t trying to kill the baby.”

“You asked Harold exactly what happened if Emily lost it.”

“I was scared.”

Michael stared at his sister.

He finally understood something Emily had been trying to teach him for years.

Fear explained behavior.

It did not excuse it.

“Where is Ava?”

“With the Lanes.”

“Does she know you’re her mother?”

“Yes.”

Michael looked surprised.

Sophia nodded.

“She has known for two years.”

“And?”

“She hates me.”

Michael almost said she had reason.

He stopped.

Sophia already knew.

Detective Torres entered.

“Harold’s attorney says he wants immunity.”

Michael laughed.

“For what?”

“He claims he can prove Jonathan Reed was murdered.”

Silence.

Michael slowly turned.

His father’s death had been ruled a heart attack.

He died alone in his study.

No autopsy.

Jonathan had longstanding cardiac problems.

Nobody questioned it.

Sophia whispered, “Harold told me that before.”

Michael stared.

“What?”

“He said Dad discovered too much.”

“And you didn’t tell me?”

“I thought he was bluffing.”

“When?”

“Six months ago.”

Michael felt sick.

“You knew someone claimed our father had been murdered and said nothing?”

Sophia shouted back.

“I was being blackmailed!”

Michael’s voice hardened.

“And everyone around you paid for your fear.”

Sophia went silent.

Torres continued.

“Harold says Jonathan recorded his last meeting.”

“Where?”

“He doesn’t know.”

Michael remembered his father’s habit of recording business conversations on a small digital device.

Jonathan distrusted meeting notes.

“Search the study.”

Thomas did.

Nothing.

Then Mason, who was staying with Rachel, asked to speak with Michael.

“Grandpa gave me something.”

Michael froze.

“When?”

“Before he died.”

“What?”

“A little black box.”

“What did he say?”

Mason thought.

“He said it was a treasure box.”

“Where is it?”

“In my room.”

Police recovered it.

Not a recorder.

A small lockbox.

Inside were toy coins, an old photograph of Jonathan holding Mason as a baby, and a USB drive.

Michael plugged it into an evidence laptop.

One audio file.

Date:

Three hours before Jonathan died.

Jonathan’s voice:

“Harold, if you touch that trust, everything comes out.”

Harold answered:

“You think Emily will protect this family after she learns what Robert Bennett discovered?”

Emily froze.

Her father.

Jonathan replied:

“She’ll protect the truth.”

Then Harold said:

“The truth is what killed Robert.”

Emily stopped breathing.

Her father had supposedly died from complications after the house fire.

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But Harold’s recorded words suggested something else.

What had Robert Bennett discovered about the Reed family that was dangerous enough for Harold Mercer to speak of his death as though it had been arranged?