“They want to take us?” Lily asked, her voice trembling.

“No, sweetheart,” I said, kneeling in front of her. “Nobody is taking you.”

“But the man said they would,” Lily whispered.

Emma stood by the window, her hands clenched into fists.

“She killed Mom, didn’t she?” Emma asked suddenly.

The room went completely silent.

Benjamin looked up, his face pale. “Emma, don’t say that.”

“She did,” Emma insisted, her voice rising. “She wanted the company then, and she wants it now.”

Detective Pierce watched the exchange, his notepad still in his hand.

“We don’t have proof of that, Emma,” Pierce said gently. “But we are looking into everything.”

I looked at Sophie.

She hadn’t moved.

Her gaze was fixed on the floorboards directly beneath the staircase.

Her small fingers were twisting the hem of her oversized sweater.

There was an intensity in her silence that I hadn’t noticed before.

She wasn’t just afraid.

She was hiding something.

I walked over to her and sat down on the step beside her.

“Sophie,” I said softly, keeping my voice low so the others wouldn’t interrupt.