Chapter 10 - The Rehearsal
Sophie remembered the script.
Dad yells.
Dad scares Mom.
Dad cares about work more than me.
I want to stay with Mom.
Rachel made her repeat it.
Again.
Again.
Again.
If Sophie changed a word, Rachel started over.
Sometimes for an hour.
“Did Dad yell?”
Denise asked gently.
“Sometimes.”
That mattered.
I had yelled.
At traffic.
At broken appliances.
Once during an argument with Rachel.
I refused to pretend otherwise.
“Were you scared?”
Sophie thought.
“When he yelled at Mom, yes.”
I felt ashamed.
Denise did not rescue me from it.
Good.
Truth had to include my failures too.
But Sophie also said I had never hit her.
Never locked her away.
Never told her to lie.
Rachel had taken ordinary imperfections and built a monster around them.
Then Sophie described a hidden phone.
Rachel kept it inside a blue sewing box.
She used it when talking to Daniel.
Police searched the house.
The sewing box was empty.
But a charging cable remained behind the dresser.
Device records showed a second phone registered under a prepaid account.
Its cloud backup still existed.
Lena obtained access.
Thousands of messages appeared.
Rachel and Daniel discussed custody.
Money.
Media strategy.
Sophie.
Then one message changed the criminal case.
RACHEL: I PUSHED TOO HARD THIS TIME.
DANIEL: HOW BAD?
RACHEL: HANDLE MARK ON HER BACK.
DANIEL: KEEP HIM OUT OF TOWN UNTIL IT FADES.
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Rachel had confessed before I even came home.
