My stomach dropped. “It’s six o’clock.”

“She says I need to lose weight,” Sophie murmured softly. “That I’m getting chubby like Mommy was. She says Mommy died because she was weak… and if I want to live, I have to learn control.”

The word echoed in my head.

Control.

“She says we’re burdens,” Sophie continued flatly. “Anchors. Mistakes. She says once you change your will, she’ll figure out ‘permanent solutions.’”

Something inside me snapped.

“We’re going home,” I said. “And no one is ever going to hurt you again.”

Chapter 2: The Monster in the Kitchen

The drive back was silent. I cranked the heat, but my hands still shook.

At a stoplight, I opened the security app on my phone. I’d installed cameras throughout the house two years earlier—cameras Isabelle knew about. I had trusted her. Trusted that a woman who claimed to love us wouldn’t need watching.

I pulled up the footage from earlier that afternoon.