Chapter 2 What Mara Wanted
The moment Daniel’s car cleared the gates, Mara’s polished calm disappeared. She sat beside Sophie and asked exactly where their grandmother had placed the ledger. Sophie said she did not remember. Mara softened her voice and claimed the book contained a mistake that could cost Daniel the house. If Sophie loved her father, she said, she would help fix it before the auditor returned.
Sophie remembered something else her grandmother had told her: when an adult asks a child to keep a secret about money, tell Dad. She backed away and said the red book was safe. Mara followed her to the bottom of the staircase, opened a loose wooden panel and found only an empty space. The ledger had been there, but Sophie had already told Daniel about the hiding place two mornings earlier. Without explaining why, he had moved it into the locked compartment of his briefcase.
Mara believed the child had fooled her. She demanded that Sophie tell the auditor she had taken the ledger outside and lost it. Sophie refused. Mara’s fear sharpened into anger. She blocked the front door, caught a section of Sophie’s hair and told her nobody would believe a frightened little girl over the woman who had kept the family accounts for a year. Above them, the camera’s status light continued to blink.
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