Chapter 2 - The Night Everyone Watched Sophie Become the Villain
Six weeks earlier, Vanessa had destroyed Sophie without ever raising her voice.
It happened at Daniel’s thirty-second birthday dinner.
His aunt Karen had driven up from Princeton.
Two cousins were there.
Vanessa brought the cake.
Sophie remembered that detail because Vanessa had spent twenty minutes talking about how difficult it had been to find Daniel’s favorite chocolate hazelnut filling.
She had always been like that with him.
Thoughtful in ways that looked generous until Sophie noticed how often the generosity created an obligation.
Halfway through dinner, Vanessa placed her phone beside Daniel’s plate.
“I wasn’t going to do this tonight.”
Daniel looked at the screen.
His face changed.
Sophie leaned closer.
“What?”
Vanessa pulled the phone away from her.
“I think Daniel should read it first.”
The screenshots appeared to show messages between Sophie and Aaron Miles, a man she had dated briefly in college.
I can keep Daniel calm until the Boston offer is official.
Another:
Once I’m out there, I’ll figure out the rest.
Then:
He still thinks the move is for both of us.
Sophie stared.
“I never wrote those.”
Nobody laughed.
That would almost have been easier.
Karen looked down at her plate.
Daniel’s cousin Eric suddenly became fascinated with his water glass.
Vanessa sat perfectly still.
“You expect us to believe somebody invented an entire conversation?”
“Yes.”
Daniel looked at Sophie.
“Are you talking to Aaron?”
“No.”
“Then why does she have these?”
“I don’t know.”
Vanessa sighed.
“Sophie, stop.”
That tone hurt more than yelling would have.
Patient.
Embarrassed.
As though Sophie were humiliating herself by continuing to lie.
Sophie left the dinner crying.
Daniel did not follow for eleven minutes.
She knew because she sat in their car watching the dashboard clock.
When he finally came outside, his first question was not whether she was okay.
It was:
“Can you prove those aren’t real?”
She had never forgotten it.
Now, standing in their Westfield living room with Vanessa’s cheek red from Sophie’s slaps, Sophie understood why Daniel had believed the screenshots so quickly.
He already knew Vanessa had access to private information.
Maybe he thought that made the evidence more credible.
Sophie looked at him.
“Why did you give her my password?”
Daniel rubbed the back of his neck.
“Months ago, Vanessa showed me something.”
“What?”
“A screenshot.”
Vanessa interrupted.
“Don’t.”
Sophie looked at her.
Interesting.
Daniel continued.
“It looked like a notification from Aaron.”
“What did it say?”
“That he hoped Boston worked out.”
Sophie frowned.
Aaron did know about Boston.
So did half her professional network.
She had been shortlisted for a design-director role there and had discussed the possibility openly.
“What did Vanessa tell you?”
Daniel hesitated.
“She said somebody she knew had seen you and Aaron together in Manhattan.”
Sophie stared at him.
“I haven’t seen Aaron in three years.”
“I know that now.”
“Now?”
Daniel closed his eyes.
Sophie felt something inside her harden.
“So instead of asking me, you gave your sister access to my email.”
“I asked you whether you were happy.”
“That is not the same question.”
“I was scared.”
“And that gave you the right to search me?”
“No.”
Vanessa rolled her eyes.
“Please. Married people share passwords all the time.”
Sophie looked at her.
“Not with their sister-in-law.”
Vanessa’s mouth tightened.
Daniel spoke quietly.
“I asked Vanessa to check whether Aaron had contacted you.”
Sophie felt physically ill.
Not because he had doubted her.
Marriages survived fear.
They survived insecurity.
Sometimes they survived stupid decisions.
What Sophie did not yet know was whether they survived decisions someone deliberately hid for five months.
She picked up her purse.
Daniel stepped forward.
“Where are you going?”
“Somewhere I’m not being investigated by my husband.”
Vanessa muttered, “There she goes.”
Sophie turned.
Vanessa expected another argument.
Instead Sophie looked directly at Daniel.
“Don’t let her touch anything in this house that belongs to me.”
May you like
Then she left.
For the first time that evening, Vanessa stopped smiling.
