“I lived here.”

Silence.

Margaret wiped her eyes.

“I watched you keep her bedroom untouched.”

“I watched you spend millions looking.”

“I watched you wake up on her birthday and sit outside her room for hours.”

Her voice cracked.

“And I realized Henry lied.”

Cameron’s voice dropped.

“Then why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because by then Sophie had vanished from St.

Agnes.”

“And you were afraid.”

“Yes.”

“Of my father?”

Margaret shook her head.

“No.”

“Then who?”

She looked toward Naomi.

“The man who took over after Henry died.”

Cameron’s pulse changed.

“What man?”

Margaret looked directly at him.

“Your chief legal officer.”

Cameron stopped breathing.

“Thomas Vale?”

“Yes.”

His closest adviser.

The man who had managed the search for Sophie.

The man who reviewed every investigator.

Every lead.

Every rumor.

Cameron felt sick.

“He controlled the search.”

“Yes.”

“He knew where she was.”

“I believe so.”

“Proof?”

Margaret reached beneath her collar and removed a tiny key on a chain.

Cameron stared.

“What's that?”

“St.

Agnes archive locker.”

Naomi went pale.

“You kept it?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

Margaret looked at Cameron.

“Because there is one file Thomas never knew I copied.”

“What file?”

“Sophie’s discharge record.”

Cameron’s heart pounded.

“Where was she discharged to?”

Margaret whispered:

“Not a school.”

Cameron stared.

“Where?”

“A family.”

Silence.

“What family?”

Margaret’s eyes filled.

“The Vales.”

Cameron stopped breathing.

Thomas Vale had not only controlled the search.

According to the hidden record, his family had taken Cameron’s daughter home.

Then Sofie suddenly tugged Naomi’s coat.

“Mommy.”

Naomi looked down.

“What?”

Sofie pointed toward the photograph of Sophie Hale.

Then toward Margaret.

“She came to our house.”

Everyone froze.

Cameron crouched.

“Who?”

Sofie pointed at the fourteen-year-old version Naomi had printed from St.

Agnes records.

“That girl.”

Naomi stared.

“No, sweetheart.”

Sofie nodded firmly.

“She sleeps in Grandma’s blue room.”

Cameron’s pulse stopped.

Naomi went completely white.

“My mother has a blue guest room.”

Cameron looked at her.

“You said you don’t know where Sophie is.”

“I don’t.”

Sofie frowned.

“Yes you do.”

Naomi looked terrified.

“When did you see her?”

“Yesterday.”

Silence.

Cameron stared at Naomi.

Sofie smiled innocently.

“She told me to kiss the sad man.”

And Cameron realized the three-year-old had not wandered into his penthouse carrying an old message from the past.

His daughter had sent her.

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