Chapter 1
Alexander Vaughn came home early expecting his 4-year-old daughter to run into his arms.
Instead, he found Sofia kneeling beside the staircase, still wearing a little maid uniform.
Her cheeks were wet with tears.
“Daddy… she said I have to earn being your daughter.”
Alexander froze.
His fiancée, Veronica, stepped out of the dining room.
“She wanted to play dress-up,” she said quickly. “You’re misunderstanding this.”
But Sofia shook her head.
“She makes me clean when you leave.”
Alexander’s expression hardened.
Then—
Something slipped from Sofia’s tiny pocket and landed on the marble floor.
An old photograph.
Veronica’s face went completely pale.
“Where did you find that?”
Sofia pointed toward Veronica’s locked bedroom drawer.
Alexander picked up the picture.
It showed Veronica standing beside a woman Alexander recognized instantly.
His late wife.
But the date printed on the back was impossible.
The photograph had been taken only three days before the accident that killed her.
Alexander turned it over.
His wife had written one sentence across the back:
If anything happens to me, don’t trust Veronica.
Veronica lunged for the photograph.
Alexander pulled it away.
Then Sofia whispered:
“There are more pictures in the red box.”
May you like
Veronica stopped moving.
And Alexander suddenly realized his daughter’s humiliation might have started because she had discovered something no one was supposed to see.
