Chapter 5: The Call I Almost Didn't Take
I stopped walking.
Sophie was two steps ahead of me.
She turned around when she heard me stop and saw the phone in my hand.
She saw the name on the screen.
Her face went very still.
"You don't have to answer it," she said.
I answered it.
"Rachel." Lauren's voice was smooth.
Not apologetic.
Not frightened.
Smooth, the way it got when she had already decided what the conversation would be.
"I just wanted to check that Sophie arrived safely."
"She's fine."
"Good.
I knew she'd be fine with you.
You were always the responsible one."
"Lauren, where are you?"
"We're just taking a little break.
Kyle needed to get out of the city for a while.
You know how it is."
"I don't, actually." I kept my voice level.
"I need you to tell me about the trust account."
A half-second pause.
So brief I almost missed it.
"What about it?"
"The $74,300 in withdrawals.
The invoices from a school Sophie never attended.
The transfer paperwork for $90,000 with my name on it."
Silence.
"Lauren."
"Those documents are administrative records," she said.
"You wouldn't understand the structure of a trust account.
There are fees, management costs—"
"There's a forged signature."
"Rachel—"
"It looks like mine.
It is not mine.
And you know that."
Her voice shifted.
The smoothness cracked just slightly at the edge.
"I don't know what Sophie told you, but she's a child.
She doesn't understand what she found."
"She found documents you threw in the trash.
That part she understood fine."
"I'm her mother." The smoothness was gone now.
Something harder had replaced it.
"Whatever you think you have, I am her legal guardian and the trustee of that account.
You are a successor trustee with no current authority.
If you contact the bank or any attorney, I will tell them you took Sophie without my consent and that you've been making false accusations to cover your own access to the account."
My stomach dropped.
But I kept my voice even.
"You left her on my doorstep."
"I asked you to watch her for a few days.
That's very different from what you're implying."
Sophie was watching me from the front walk.
I turned slightly away.
"Lauren, I'm giving you one opportunity to come back and do this correctly.
For Sophie's sake."
"I don't need an opportunity from you." Her voice was cold now, fully cold.
"You have always resented me.
You resented that Ryan chose me.
You resented that I had Sophie.
And now you're trying to use a confused little girl to take everything I built."
"Ryan built that trust.
For Sophie.
Not for Kyle."
She hung up.
I stood on the front walk for a moment.
The oak trees were still.
A neighbor's sprinkler ticked somewhere down the block.
Sophie came and stood beside me.
She didn't ask what Lauren had said.
She just reached up and took my hand.
We got in the car.
I drove to Grace's office with one hand on the wheel and Sophie beside me in the passenger seat, the rabbit in her lap, watching the streets go by.
"Aunt Rachel," she said quietly, somewhere on the highway.
"Yes?"
"Mom said that if I told anyone about the papers, she'd say I made it up because I was angry at her."
I kept my eyes on the road.
"When did she tell you that?"
"Last week.
Before she packed the bags."
She had been planning this for at least a week.
Long enough to prepare Sophie for what to say.
Long enough to make sure Sophie understood the consequences of telling the truth.
Eight years old.
And Lauren had used her as a contingency plan.
"Sophie," I said.
"You told me the truth.
Whatever happens next, that was the right thing."
She looked out the window.
"Even if she gets in trouble?"
"Even then."
She was quiet for the rest of the drive.
Grace met us in the lobby.
She shook my hand, then crouched down to Sophie's level.
"Hi.
I'm Grace.
I like your rabbit."
Sophie looked at her steadily.
"His name is Button."
"That's a good name." Grace stood.
"Come on up.
I have orange juice if you want some."
Sophie looked at me.
I nodded.
She followed Grace toward the elevator, Button tucked under her arm.
In the elevator, Grace leaned close and said quietly, "I pulled the trust account records this morning through the probate court filing.
Rachel." She paused.
May you like
"There's a third transfer.
One that wasn't in the documents Sophie found."
