Chapter 7
The race car took two hours to repair.
I built it originally from walnut scraps Sofia saved from an old nursery shelf.
That was why Theo loved it.
He did not know the wood came from his mother’s things.
I had planned to tell him when he was older.
Winifred knew.
That changed the pool incident again.
She had not thrown a random handmade toy.
She had thrown something connected to Sofia.
I confronted her at midnight.
“You knew what the wood was.”
Her face changed.
Yes.
“Who told you?”
“Sofia.”
Of course.
They hated each other near the end.
I had called it personality.
Maybe that was my first mistake.
“What did Sofia say?”
Winifred crossed her arms.
“That you were making Theo sentimental.”
I stared.
“Sofia said that?”
“No.”
She laughed.
“She accused me of saying it.”
There.
Better.
“What were you doing?”
“She gave him too much.”
“Affection?”
“Everything.”
I looked at her.
“Sofia was his mother.”
“She was making him soft.”
Again.
Same word.
Always soft.
“What did Sofia do?”
Winifred’s mouth tightened.
“She told me if I ever punished Theo for crying again, she would keep me away from him.”
My breathing changed.
Again?
“How old was he?”
“One.”
I stared.
This did not begin after Sofia died.
She had been protecting him already.
“What did you do?”
“Nothing.”
Lie.
I waited.
Winifred finally said:
“I told Sofia she wouldn’t always be around.”
The room went silent.
She heard it too.
I stepped closer.
“What did you mean?”
“She was ill.”
My heart stopped.
Sofia died in a boating accident.
She had not been ill.
Winifred knew immediately she had said the wrong thing.
I stared.
“What illness?”
“Nothing.”
“Winifred.”
She looked away.
“Ask her doctor.”
Sofia did not have a doctor beyond routine care.
At least none I knew.
Then I remembered three trips she called charity appointments.
My hands went cold.
“What did Sofia have?”
Winifred finally whispered:
May you like
“She thought somebody was making her sick.”
And suddenly my son’s punishment ledger opened a door into his mother’s death.
