Chapter 1 - The Family Picture Without Her
Sophie was standing exactly where the photographer had placed her when Rachel grabbed her arm.
“Move.”
The five-year-old stumbled sideways in her yellow dress as Rachel pulled her completely out of the family arrangement.
“This is a family photoshoot. You’re not a family member. Go sit somewhere else.”
The photographer lowered his camera.
Sophie stared at Rachel as if she had misunderstood.
Then her mouth trembled.
Across the living room of Daniel Mercer’s Belle Meade home, his mother, Linda, watched from beside the fireplace.
Sophie turned toward her grandmother immediately.
“Grandma?”
Linda had always been the one who slipped her cookies after dinner, braided her hair when Daniel worked late, and told her she looked exactly like her mother.
For one hopeful second, Sophie seemed certain Linda would fix this.
Linda walked toward her.
But instead of reaching for Sophie, she picked up the small framed photograph sitting on the display shelf.
It showed Daniel holding Sophie at the Tennessee State Fair two summers earlier.
Linda turned it facedown.
“Good,” she said. “The picture will look better without her.”
Something in Sophie’s expression collapsed.
Rachel returned to the center of the set.
Linda joined her.
The photographer hesitated.
Rachel gave him an impatient smile.
“We’re ready.”
The flash went off.
At that exact moment, the front door opened hard.
Daniel stepped inside.
He had returned from a commercial-property meeting in Chattanooga almost three hours early.
He was still holding his keys when he saw his daughter standing alone behind the photographer.
Her cheeks were wet.
Rachel and Linda were posing beneath the chandelier as though Sophie weren’t there.
Daniel’s face changed.
He crossed the room, took Sophie’s hand, and led her directly into the center of the arrangement.
“If my daughter isn’t family, then neither am I.”
Rachel’s practiced smile disappeared.
Linda went rigid.
Sophie wrapped both hands around Daniel’s fingers.
Then she looked up at him.
“Daddy?”
“What, sweetheart?”
Her voice was barely audible.
“Rachel said someone is coming to adopt me next Monday.”
Nobody moved.
Daniel looked at Rachel.
Rachel looked terrified.
Linda looked at Rachel.
Not Sophie.
Not Daniel.
Rachel.
Daniel noticed.
“What did she just say?”
Rachel recovered first.
“She misunderstood.”
Sophie immediately shook her head.
“No, I didn’t.”
Daniel crouched.
“What exactly did Rachel tell you?”
Rachel stepped forward.
“Daniel, don’t interrogate her.”
He raised one hand without looking away from Sophie.
Rachel stopped.
Sophie wiped her face with the heel of her palm.
“She said Monday I have to go with Meredith and Scott.”
Daniel recognized the names.
Meredith Lawson was Linda’s niece in Louisville.
Scott was her husband.
They had no children.
Daniel had met them twice.
Sophie continued.
“She said they’ll be my new family because you want a fresh start.”
Daniel slowly stood.
Rachel’s face had lost all color.
“That’s enough,” she said.
Daniel looked at her.
“No. We’re finally getting started.”
He canceled the photoshoot.
The photographer packed quietly.
Linda tried to follow Sophie upstairs.
Daniel stepped between them.
“You’re not going anywhere near her.”
“Daniel, I’m her grandmother.”
“Not right now.”
Rachel folded her arms.
“You’re making this bigger than it is.”
Daniel turned.
“My five-year-old thinks strangers are taking her Monday.”
“They’re relatives.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
Rachel glanced toward Linda again.
Another reaction.
Another thing Daniel filed away.
That evening he slept beside Sophie’s bed because she refused to let him leave.
Around midnight, she finally whispered into the darkness.
“Daddy?”
“I’m here.”
“Do I have to pack everything?”
Daniel looked down.
“What?”
“Rachel said I could only take one suitcase.”
Daniel switched on the bedside lamp.
Sophie pointed toward the bottom of her closet.
May you like
A small pink suitcase was already there.
Packed.
