Chapter 4 - The Photograph in the Attic
They returned across the flood together.
Emma went first, secured by the rope.
Then Sophie.
When Lily saw the mysterious girl entering the house, she ran forward.
"You came!"
Emma smiled shyly.
For the first time, she looked like an ordinary child.
Lily held up Clover.
Emma raised her rabbit.
The two toys were unmistakably twins.
Margaret saw Sophie last.
Her knees nearly buckled.
"Sophie?"
Sophie stared at her.
"Maggie?"
Margaret covered her mouth.
Then the two women embraced.
Ethan stood watching, soaked and overwhelmed.
"Somebody needs to tell me everything."
They gathered around the dining table.
Sophie explained.
The night she disappeared, someone had awakened her and said their mother was waiting outside.
"Aunt Claire," Sophie said.
Ethan frowned.
Their father's younger sister.
Claire Cole.
The glamorous aunt who visited on holidays.
The woman who sent Ethan birthday cards until he turned eighteen.
"Claire took you?"
Sophie nodded.
"She told me Mom wanted us to leave."
"But why?"
"Money."
Richard's father had created a trust for his grandchildren.
Ethan had forgotten about it.
If Sophie disappeared and was declared dead, her share eventually became entangled in Richard's control.
Claire had debts.
Richard had debts.
But Sophie insisted Richard hadn't planned the abduction.
"Claire wanted money from Dad," she explained. "She thought he'd pay to get me back."
"Did he?"
"No."
Margaret looked horrified.
Sophie continued.
"Something went wrong. Dad threatened to call police. Claire panicked. She took me out of state."
"How did nobody find you?"
"Different name. Different schools. Claire told people I was her daughter."
"Why didn't you run?"
"I was six."
The simplicity of the answer hurt more than anything else.
"When I got older, Claire told me my family was dead."
"And Mom?"
"Mom never stopped looking."
Sophie explained that their mother, Caroline, eventually discovered Claire's involvement.
But Claire had disappeared again.
Years passed.
Caroline searched quietly after being dismissed as unstable.
Finally, when Sophie was twenty-two, Caroline found her.
"Why didn't Mom find me?" Ethan asked.
"She tried."
"No."
"She did."
"I never heard from her."
"Because Dad intercepted everything."
Sophie opened a waterproof bag.
Inside were dozens of returned letters.
All addressed to Ethan.
His mother's handwriting.
He stared at them.
Every birthday.
Every Christmas.
Every year.
Ethan felt anger rise like floodwater.
His father had told him Caroline abandoned him.
She hadn't.
She had written until her hands became arthritic.
Ethan opened one letter.
Then another.
His mother had remembered everything.
His graduation.
His birthday.
The college he attended.
She had followed his life from a distance.
One letter contained a photograph.
Caroline and adult Sophie stood together.
Ethan had a sister.
For years, she had been alive.
"What about the rabbits?" Lily asked.
Everyone turned.
Sophie smiled through tears.
"Mom bought two when we were little."
"Why did I find mine in a store?" Lily asked.
Sophie looked at Ethan.
"I put it there."
"What?"
"I knew where you lived."
Ethan stared.
"You knew?"
"For three months."
"Why didn't you contact me?"
"I was afraid."
"Of me?"
"Of finding out you didn't want me."
Ethan's anger disappeared.
Sophie looked toward Emma.
"I left the rabbit at that store because I knew you shopped nearby. It was stupid. I thought maybe..."
"Maybe what?"
"Maybe some part of you would recognize it."
Ethan looked at Clover.
He had.
Not consciously.
But when Lily picked it up, Ethan had felt an inexplicable ache.
"Why come here tonight?"
"Mom's final letter instructed me to."
"And Emma?"
"My granddaughter."
Ethan blinked.
Sophie laughed weakly.
"I had my daughter young. Emma is hers."
"Where's Emma's mother?"
"Working with emergency services in another county. Emma was with me when the storm trapped us."
Ethan looked toward the two children.
Lily and Emma were already sitting together on the floor, comparing rabbits.
Family.
Without knowing it, Lily had spent the evening staring across the flood at family.
Ethan returned to his mother's letter.
There was another instruction.
Go to the attic. Look beneath the floorboard under the east window.
The storm prevented them from crossing again immediately.
Near midnight, however, the rain weakened.
Rescue officials announced the water was stabilizing.
At dawn, Ethan and Sophie returned.
They climbed to the attic.
The east window was cracked.
Beneath it, Ethan found a loose floorboard.
Inside was another photograph.
Richard.
Claire.
And another man Ethan didn't recognize.
On the back:
October 18, 2001. Three days before Sophie disappeared.
There was also a bank statement.
A payment.
$75,000.
From Richard Cole.
To Claire.
Dated two days after Sophie's disappearance.
Ethan's stomach turned.
Sophie stared at it.
"You said Dad didn't know."
"I thought he didn't."
The evidence suggested something far darker.
Then Ethan found a handwritten note beneath the statement.
It was from Richard.
Take her somewhere Caroline will never find her. Once everything settles, I'll send the rest.
Sophie stepped backward.
"No."
Ethan stared at his father's signature.
Their mother had been wrong.
Claire had taken Sophie.
But Richard had paid her.
Their father had known.
And suddenly Ethan remembered the blue blanket.
Not a body.
A suitcase.
His father had been carrying Sophie's belongings into the cellar.
He had helped erase her.
But why?
Ethan unfolded the final document.
It was a custody petition Caroline had prepared before Sophie vanished.
Attached was a statement detailing Richard's violence and financial crimes.
If Caroline left with the children, Richard stood to lose everything.
Sophie sank onto an old trunk.
"He got rid of me to stop Mom."
"And kept me," Ethan whispered, "so she couldn't leave without abandoning one of us."
They sat silently.
Then Sophie noticed something written beneath the floorboard.
A message scratched directly into the wood.
ETHAN SAW CLAIRE.
Ethan stared.
Memory exploded through him.
A car.
Claire opening the passenger door.
Sophie crying.
Their father gripping Ethan's shoulder.
And Richard whispering:
"You didn't see anything."
Ethan finally remembered.
He had seen Sophie being taken.
May you like
And his father had spent years making him forget.
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