Someone angry.
Controlling.
Cornered.
I walked toward the front door carrying Sophie while Rebecca followed close behind.
“You have no idea what she’s like when you’re gone!” she snapped. “She lies! She manipulates! She turns everything into drama!”
I opened the door.
Rain hammered the driveway outside.
“Then why is she terrified of you?”
Rebecca stopped cold.
Real silence filled the house for the first time.
Not marital tension.
Not annoyance.
Fear.
Then Rebecca whispered something that made my blood freeze completely:
“Because she’s starting to sound exactly like him.”
I turned slowly.
“What?”
Rebecca looked horrified she’d said it aloud.
Sophie buried her face against my neck.
“Mommy says I remind her of my brother.”
Everything inside me stopped.
Brother?
Sophie was an only child.
Rebecca realized too late what she’d done.
Her breathing changed instantly.
Fast now.
Panicked.
“Daniel—”
“What brother?”
No answer.
Just silence.
Then I remembered something impossible.
Nine years ago.
A miscarriage.
Or at least… that’s what Rebecca told me happened while I was overseas for work.
She never let me see hospital records.
Never talked about it again.
And suddenly, standing there in the doorway with my shaking daughter in my arms, I understood something terrifying:
Maybe my wife hadn’t been losing control recently.
Maybe she had been hiding it for years.
Then Sophie whispered against my shoulder:
“Dad… please don’t leave me alone with her again.”
And from somewhere upstairs—
a loud crash echoed through the house.
Rebecca’s face went completely white.
Because whatever had just fallen…
she clearly didn’t want me finding it.
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