Chapter 8
Sophie talked for three hours.
She told Clara everything. How Daniel had hired her at the company, told her he was “separated” from his “crazy, abusive wife.” How he’d promised to marry her, to buy her a house, to give her and the baby the world. How Evelyn had come to the hospital, held Aiden, told Sophie she was “the daughter she’d always wanted,” that Clara would be “out of the picture soon.”
She showed Clara the texts. Hundreds of them.
Daniel: Don’t worry, baby. As soon as we get rid of Clara, the mansion is ours.
Evelyn: Just keep him happy. Once she’s gone, we’ll make you Mrs. Carter.
Daniel: She’s so stupid. She thinks I actually love her. One more month, and we’ll have everything.
Clara read them all, her face cold. She’d thought she’d known the worst of it. She’d been wrong.
The fight, the slap, the rush to throw her out—none of it had been a spontaneous outburst of anger. It had been a plan. Months in the making. They’d timed it perfectly, right after the allowance was supposed to hit, right before Daniel was going to transfer the mansion into his name (or so he’d thought). They’d intended to leave her with nothing, no money, no home, no proof of anything, while they moved Sophie and the baby into her house.
“I didn’t know the mansion was yours,” Sophie said, wiping her eyes. “I didn’t know about the money. I thought Daniel was rich. I thought he was paying for everything.”
She reached into her jewelry box, pulled out three necklaces and a bracelet.
“Evelyn gave these to me,” she said. “Said they were family heirlooms. For when I married Daniel. I never wore them. They felt… wrong.”
Clara looked at the jewelry. Her grandmother’s sapphire necklace. Her dad’s graduation tennis bracelet. The diamond earrings she’d gotten for her 25th birthday.
All of it.
“These are mine,” Clara said quietly. “Evelyn stole them from my safe.”
Sophie’s hand flew to her mouth. “Oh my god. I’m so sorry. I had no idea. I would never have taken them if I’d known. Please. Take them back.”
She pushed the jewelry across the coffee table.
Clara picked it up, holding the sapphire necklace in her hand. It was cold, familiar. She’d thought she’d never see it again.
“Thank you,” she said.
She looked at Sophie, at the small apartment, the hand-me-down furniture, the stack of unopened bills on the counter. Daniel had been paying her $1,500 a month, barely enough to cover rent and diapers. He’d been living in luxury while his son and his son’s mother lived in poverty.
Clara made a decision.
“I have a proposition for you,” she said.
Sophie looked up, wary. “What kind of proposition?”
“Evelyn is being charged with felony theft for stealing this jewelry. The police are going to ask you where you got it. If you tell them the truth—that Evelyn gave it to you, that you had no idea it was stolen, that you’re cooperating with the prosecution—they won’t charge you. You’ll just be a witness.”
Sophie nodded. “Okay. I’ll do it.”
“There’s more,” Clara said. “Daniel is going to be ordered to pay child support. A lot of it. But he’s broke. His business is gone. He has no money. He’ll probably skip town, or find a way to get out of paying. I don’t want Aiden to suffer because his father is a selfish liar.”
She paused.
“I’m going to set up a trust fund for Aiden. $500,000. He can use it for college, for a house, for whatever he needs. No strings attached. And I’m going to pay for you to move anywhere you want. Start over. New name, new town, new life. Far away from Daniel and Evelyn. You never have to see either of them again.”
Sophie stared at her, tears spilling down her cheeks. “Why would you do that? For me? For his baby?”
Clara looked at Aiden, sleeping peacefully in his crib. He had Daniel’s eyes, but that was where the resemblance ended. He was innocent. He hadn’t chosen his father. He hadn’t chosen any of this.
“Because no baby deserves to pay for their parents’ mistakes,” she said. “And because I know what it’s like to have nothing. To be alone. I don’t want that for you. Or for him.”
Sophie threw her arms around Clara, sobbing into her shoulder. “Thank you. Thank you so much. I don’t know how to repay you.”
Clara hesitated, then hugged her back. It was the first time she’d let anyone touch her since the slap.
“Just testify,” she said. “Make sure they pay for what they did. That’s all I ask.”
She left the apartment an hour later, the jewelry in her purse, a weight lifted off her shoulders. She’d expected to hate Sophie. She’d expected to want to hurt her, the way she’d been hurt. But she didn’t. She just felt sorry for her. Sorry that she’d been lied to, used, discarded, just like Clara had.
Her phone rang as she got in her car. It was the security company, alerting her to a break-in at the mansion.
Clara’s blood ran cold.
“Daniel,” she said.
She called the police, then raced to the mansion. She got there before the cops, the front door hanging open, glass from the sidelight window scattered across the porch. She grabbed the baseball bat she kept in her trunk and walked inside.
The house was dark. She could hear voices coming from the safe room.
“Where is it? Where did she put it?” Daniel’s voice, panicked.
“Shut up and look!” Evelyn’s voice, sharp. “If we find the original security footage, we can destroy it. Then the theft charges go away. We can say she planted the jewelry on Sophie. We can still win this!”
Clara stepped into the doorway of the safe room, the bat raised.
Daniel and Evelyn were on their knees, tearing through the filing cabinets, papers everywhere. Sophie was standing in the corner, Aiden in her arms, her face white with fear.
They’d dragged her with them.
“Let her go,” Clara said, her voice cold.
All three of them jumped. Daniel stood up, his face wild.
“Clara,” he said. “We were just… we were looking for our things.”
“Bullshit,” Clara said. She nodded at Sophie. “Let her and the baby leave. Now.”
Evelyn stepped toward her, her hand raised. “You don’t get to give orders in this house, you little—”
The sound of sirens cut her off. Red and blue lights flashed through the windows.
Daniel’s face went white. He lunged for Clara, grabbing the bat, trying to take it from her. They struggled, falling to the floor, papers flying everywhere. Evelyn jumped on top of Clara, pulling her hair, screaming. Sophie screamed, clutching the baby.
The police burst in five seconds later.
They pulled Daniel and Evelyn off Clara, slapping handcuffs on them both. Daniel fought, screaming curses. Evelyn spit at the officers, kicking and screaming that she was “a Carter,” that they couldn’t do this to her.
Clara sat on the floor, her hair messy, her lip bleeding, watching them get dragged out.
Sophie knelt next to her, Aiden still in her arms.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
Clara nodded. She looked at the police leading Daniel and Evelyn out the door, their hands cuffed behind their backs, their lives over.
May you like
“Yeah,” she said. “I’m okay.”
For the first time in three years, she meant it.
