Chapter 2 - THE WOMAN WITH SOPHIA’S BAG
The woman introduced herself as Mara Ellis, but she refused to explain how she knew Sophia while they stood in the street. Claire wanted to call the police immediately. Mara asked her not to use her phone until they reached somewhere private, and the insistence made Claire distrust her more. Then Eli quietly said the man in the dark sedan had been outside their apartment the previous evening, and Claire understood that whatever story Mara was carrying had already reached the boy.
Claire brought them into a hotel café she used for client meetings, choosing a table away from the windows. She notified the manager that she needed security and called her own attorney from a hotel landline. Mara watched every entrance while Eli drank warm milk and ate a muffin so quickly that Claire ordered another without asking him whether he wanted it.
The leather satchel rested on the seat beside Mara. Claire could see the red thread on its handle. She pointed to it. “My sister stitched that herself after the strap broke on a train.”
Mara’s face softened briefly. “She told me you made fun of her because you offered to buy her a new one.”
“I did.”
“She said you didn’t understand that she wanted to fix something without replacing it.”
Claire looked down. That sounded like Sophia, which frightened her more than a rehearsed story would have.
Mara said she met Sophia eight years earlier at a residential recovery program in upstate New York. Sophia had arrived under an assumed surname with severe anxiety, gaps in her records, and a determination not to contact anyone connected to the Bennett family. Mara worked at the program as a residential coordinator. Over time, they became friends. When Sophia left, Mara helped her find an apartment and work that did not require explaining the missing years.
“Why wouldn’t she call me?” Claire asked.
Mara glanced at Eli. “She believed someone close to you was involved.”
“Who?”
“She wouldn’t tell me at first.”
Claire’s phone vibrated again. This time the caller was her husband, Jonathan Bennett. He had been her husband for eleven years and the person who held her together when Sophia vanished. Jonathan helped pay for investigators, sat through police interviews, and persuaded Claire to stop treating every unknown number as a possible message from her sister.
Claire let the call ring out.
Mara noticed the name on the screen and went pale.
“Does he know you’re here?” she asked.
“Jonathan? No.”
“Keep it that way.”
Claire looked at her. “You’d better give me a reason.”
Mara opened Sophia’s satchel and removed a folded photograph. It showed Sophia sitting in a park with a toddler on her lap. The photograph was only a few years old. Sophia looked thinner, older, and wary of the camera, but the smile belonged to Claire’s sister.
On the back she had written:
If Eli reaches Claire, tell her I was wrong to think silence would keep him safe.
Claire held the photograph against the table to steady it.
Mara then removed a second envelope. Inside were copies of documents from a company called Hartwell Recovery Services. Claire recognized the name. Hartwell managed private rehabilitation and residential-care facilities. Three years after Sophia disappeared, Jonathan’s investment group had acquired a minority stake in it.
Claire looked up.
“My husband invested in this company.”
“I know,” Mara said.
Claire’s phone began ringing again.
Jonathan.
May you like
This time Mara reached across the table and placed her hand over it.
“Don’t answer until you’ve seen the rest.”
