Chapter 1 - THE KEY IN VANESSA’S POCKET
Daniel Brooks knew something was wrong before his daughter reached him.
Four-year-old Sophie stood beside the kitchen sink crying so hard her shoulders kept jumping.
Vanessa towered over her with a wet kitchen towel twisted between both hands.
“Stop crying. Nobody believes tantrums.”
Sophie flinched when Vanessa raised her voice again.
Not surprised.
Prepared.
Daniel froze in the kitchen doorway of their Hinsdale, Illinois home.
Vanessa turned.
Her face changed immediately.
“Daniel, she dumped water everywhere and then started screaming.”
He barely heard her.
Sophie had backed herself against the cabinets.
“Sophie.”
Daniel dropped to one knee and opened his arms.
“Come here.”
She ran.
Her small body hit his chest with enough force to knock him backward.
Daniel wrapped both arms around her.
Sophie buried her face against his work shirt.
Then, so quietly he almost missed it, she whispered:
“Daddy… she scares me every day.”
Daniel looked at Vanessa.
His wife forced a smile.
“She makes things up when she doesn’t get her way.”
Sophie’s fingers dug into his shirt.
Daniel stood, keeping her behind him.
That was when he noticed the brass key hanging halfway out of Vanessa’s trouser pocket.
Sophie saw it too.
She pointed.
“That opens the basement.”
Vanessa went pale.
Daniel looked toward the locked basement door at the end of the kitchen.
It had been locked for months.
Vanessa said it contained old furniture, paint cans, and items Sophie could get hurt around.
Daniel had never questioned it.
Why would he?
Vanessa managed most of the house while he worked sixty-hour weeks as a commercial construction manager.
He reached for the key.
Vanessa caught his wrist.
“Daniel.”
He looked down at her hand.
She released him.
“What’s downstairs?”
“Storage.”
“Then why is Sophie afraid of the key?”
“She isn’t.”
Behind him, Sophie whispered, “Please don’t make me go down there.”
Daniel felt his stomach drop.
Vanessa moved toward Sophie.
Daniel stepped between them.
“Stay there.”
Her expression sharpened.
“You’re seriously treating me like I’m dangerous because a four-year-old had a meltdown?”
“I’m listening to my daughter.”
“And I’m your wife.”
“That should make this easier to explain.”
He pulled the key from her pocket.
Vanessa moved in front of the basement door.
“Don’t open that.”
Daniel stared at her.
“Move.”
“Daniel, there are things down there you don’t understand.”
“That sentence isn’t helping.”
Vanessa’s eyes filled.
For one second, she looked frightened rather than angry.
Then Sophie peeked around Daniel’s leg.
“She put Mommy’s box down there.”
Daniel stopped.
Vanessa closed her eyes.
Sophie’s biological mother, Julia, had not been part of their lives for almost three years.
Daniel had been told she stopped trying.
No letters.
No birthday gifts.
No calls through attorneys.
Nothing.
He had eventually stopped mentioning her because Sophie had been too young to remember much.
Now his daughter was telling him Vanessa had something belonging to Julia locked beneath their house.
Daniel put the key into the basement lock.
Vanessa whispered:
“If you open that door, you’re going to destroy this family.”
May you like
Daniel turned the key.
“Then maybe I should know what it was built on.”
