Chapter 5
Beatrice’s sister, Natalie, lived in Vermont.
She had refused every request from the Hale family for years.
She agreed to speak with Sofia.
Not Raffaele.
Sofia flew alone.
Natalie opened a cardboard box on her dining table.
Inside were Beatrice’s old journals.
Sofia recognized the handwriting immediately.
Most entries described ordinary misery.
Preston checking her phone.
Grace dismissing her concerns.
Arguments.
Apologies.
Promises.
Then the entries changed.
Beatrice began writing about a woman named Caroline.
Caroline Hale had been Preston’s older sister.
She died twelve years earlier.
Officially from an accidental overdose.
Beatrice had started questioning that story.
Not because she believed Preston killed Caroline.
Because Grace had controlled everything afterward.
Medical explanations.
Family statements.
Who could ask questions.
Beatrice wrote:
Grace always decides which version survives.
Sofia felt cold reading it.
Another entry:
Preston threatened me tonight. Said I should ask what happened to Caroline when she embarrassed the family.
Sofia closed the journal.
The phrase was too similar.
Beatrice begged longer than this.
Preston did not simply use dead women as references.
He used their deaths as threats.
Natalie handed Sofia a sealed envelope.
“Beatrice mailed this to me the morning she died.”
Inside was one sentence:
If anything happens tonight, Sofia heard enough to know where to start.
Sofia read it twice.
“But I didn't hear enough.”
Natalie looked at her.
“Maybe Beatrice thought you would.”
Sofia returned to New York carrying copies of the journals.
When Raffaele read the letter, his anger changed.
May you like
For five years, everyone had treated Sofia as the confused survivor of a terrible accident.
Beatrice had treated her as the backup plan.
