Chapter 48
SOPHIA
I started small, the way I always started things that needed to look like nothing at all until they'd already done their damage.
Daniel's mother had never been particularly warm toward me, not the way his father was, but she liked to talk, especially over the kind of long, wine-soaked lunches she favored on slow afternoons, and I'd spent years cultivating just enough of a relationship with her that showing up unannounced didn't raise any real suspicion.
"I worry about Nora sometimes," I said, stirring my tea, keeping my voice light, thoughtful, the careful tone of a concerned friend rather than anything sharper. "She's been so different lately. I'm sure it's nothing, but she's been going out a lot, alone, not always saying where."
Daniel's mother raised an eyebrow, s
