Sofia thought the worst moment was watching the picture burn—then her son looked up and asked permission to love someone.

Camila Reyes opened her apartment door in pajamas, took one look at Sofia's face, and stopped asking questions.

"Inside. Now."

Sofia carried Leo past her.

Camila locked the door, slid the deadbolt, and turned around.

"Who hit you?"

Sofia set Leo down.

"Margaret."

Camila blinked.

"Governor Margaret Cole?"

"My mother-in-law Margaret Cole."

"Same woman. Worse title."

Despite everything, Sofia almost laughed.

Leo had already wandered toward Camila's living room, where a basket of toys sat beneath the television for Camila's nieces. He picked up a plastic dinosaur and held it to his chest.

Camila lowered her voice.

"Where's Ethan?"

"With her."

"Of course he is."

"Camila."

"I'm sorry. No, I'm not. I'm trying to be supportive, but I have watched that man turn into wallpaper every time his mother walks into a room for three years."

Sofia looked away.

That hurt because it was true.

Camila took her phone.

"Photo."

"What?"

"Your face. Parker was right."

Sofia stared.

"How did you know Parker—"

"You texted me from the car."

Sofia looked down at her own phone and realized she had sent Camila three fragmented messages at stoplights: MARGARET HIT ME. LEAVING. PARKER SAID TAKE PHOTO.

She barely remembered doing it.

Camila photographed the redness on Sofia's cheek from several angles.

Then she took pictures of the bruise already forming near Sofia's hip where she had struck the chair.

"You should get checked out."

"I'm fine."

"You say that one more time and I'm driving you to urgent care myself."

Sofia sank onto the couch.

She felt suddenly exhausted.

Leo climbed beside her and tucked himself against her body.

Camila disappeared into the kitchen and returned with water, crackers, and a bag of frozen peas wrapped in a dish towel.

"Luxury medical care," she said.

Sofia held the cold bag to her cheek.

Her phone had twelve missed calls.

Nine from Ethan.

Two from an unknown number.

One from Margaret.

Then a new message appeared.

ETHAN: Please tell me where you are. I just want to know Leo is safe.

Sofia stared at it.

Camila read over her shoulder.

"Don't answer that."

"He's his father."

"He's your husband. Legally, that's a whole mess I am not qualified to explain. But you don't need to hand them your location tonight."

Sofia knew Camila was right.

Still, she typed: Leo is safe. We need space. Do not come looking for us tonight.

She sent it.

Ethan replied immediately.

ETHAN: Mom says you shoved her first.

Sofia's breath caught.

Another message.

ETHAN: I need you to tell me exactly what happened before this gets worse.

Camila closed her eyes.

"There it is."

"What?"

"Not 'Are you okay?' Not 'I'm sorry.' He wants your statement before his mother's version becomes official."

Sofia set the phone face down.

Leo was watching her.

She forced a smile.

"How about a sleepover with Aunt Camila?"

He nodded.

"Can dinosaur sleep too?"

"Absolutely," Camila said. "He already paid rent."

Leo smiled for the first time since dinner.

An hour later, after a bath and two stories, he fell asleep in Camila's guest room with the plastic dinosaur beside his pillow.

Sofia stood in the doorway watching him.

The question returned.

Am I still allowed to love Mama?

How many times had Margaret said something like that?

How many conversations had taken place when Sofia wasn't in the room?

And what did Leo mean about Ana's secret box?

Camila appeared behind her.

"Coffee?"

"Make it strong."

They sat at the kitchen table.

Sofia placed the surviving piece of Leo's drawing between them.

Camila studied it.

"He said Ana told him about this?"

"That's what he says."

"He was a baby when she died."

"Eighteen months."

"Could be a memory."

"Maybe."

Camila tapped the blue square.

"House where the lake sees the moon. That's creepy for a four-year-old."

"Ana used to say things like that."

Camila looked up.

"What do you mean?"

Sofia's mind traveled backward.

She and Ana had grown up with very little money and an excess of imagination. Their mother worked nights at a hospital laundry. Their father had left before Sofia could remember him.

Ana turned ordinary places into kingdoms for Sofia.

A drainage ditch became the Silver River.

The laundromat became the Cloud Factory.

Their mother's old station wagon became the Blue Ship.

"Ana named places," Sofia said. "Private names. She made everything sound magical."

"Did she ever call somewhere the house where the lake sees the moon?"

Sofia thought.

Then her chest tightened.

"Lake Briar."

Camila sat up.

"What?"

"Our mother had a cousin with a cabin there. We spent two summers at Lake Briar when I was a kid. Ana loved it. At night, the water reflected the moon almost perfectly. She used to call it the second sky."

"Does your family still own the cabin?"

"No. The cousin sold it years ago."

Camila leaned back.

"Then maybe the phrase means something else."

Sofia nodded, but another memory had surfaced.

The year before Ana died, she had asked Sofia whether she remembered Lake Briar.

They had been at a restaurant. Ana had looked distracted, checking the door twice during dinner.

Sofia had joked that she was acting like someone was following her.

Ana had not laughed.

Instead she had asked, If I ever needed you to remember one place from when we were kids, what place would you remember?

Sofia had said Lake Briar.

Ana had smiled.

Good.

At the time, Sofia thought nothing of it.

Now every hair on her arms rose.

"Camila."

"What?"

"I think Ana was trying to tell me something before she died."

Sofia stood so quickly the chair scraped across the floor.

"Where are you going?"

"Storage."

"At one in the morning?"

"My storage unit. I kept Ana's things after the accident."

"Absolutely not alone."

"Leo's asleep."

"My sister is ten minutes away. She can stay here."

Sofia shook her head.

"This is crazy."

"Probably. Put on shoes."

Forty minutes later, Camila's sister was asleep on the couch and Sofia and Camila were driving through wet streets toward a storage facility on the south side of the city.

Sofia's phone rang twice on the way.

Ethan.

She ignored it.

Then the unknown number called again.

Camila looked at the screen mounted on the dashboard.

"Same number?"

"Yes."

"Answer on speaker."

Sofia hesitated, then did.

"Hello?"

Silence.

Rain hissed beneath the tires.

"Who is this?"

A woman spoke.

"Sofia?"

The voice was low and hurried.

"Yes."

"My name is Maria Danner."

Sofia frowned.

The name meant nothing.

"How did you get my number?"

"Your sister gave it to me."

Sofia nearly dropped the phone.

"My sister has been dead for three years."

"I know."

Camila looked at her.

Sofia gripped the steering wheel.

"Who are you?"

"I worked with Ana."

"Ana worked at a community arts nonprofit."

"That was her public job."

Sofia's pulse quickened.

"What does that mean?"

Maria was silent long enough that Sofia thought the call had dropped.

Then she said, "Ana did contract work for the Cole Foundation."

Sofia felt the road disappear beneath her.

"No."

"Yes."

"She never told me that."

"She wasn't supposed to."

Camila mouthed, Pull over.

Sofia turned into a closed pharmacy parking lot and stopped beneath a streetlight.

"Why are you calling me now?"

Maria exhaled shakily.

"Because someone contacted me tonight and asked whether Ana ever gave me a blue document box."

Sofia stared at the scrap of drawing on the center console.

A blue square.

A gold star.

"Who called you?"

"A man. He didn't give his name."

"What did you tell him?"

"That I'd never seen one."

"Was that true?"

Maria did not answer.

Sofia's heartbeat became thunder.

"Maria."

"Listen to me carefully. Do not go back to the governor's house. Do not let anyone from that family know where you're staying."

"Ethan is my husband."

"Ana trusted Ethan once too."

Sofia's breath caught.

"What are you talking about?"

"She went to him the night before she died."

Sofia closed her eyes.

"No."

"She did."

"Why?"

"Because she had found something inside the foundation accounts."

Camila leaned closer to the phone.

"What did she find?"

Maria's voice dropped.

"Money that was supposed to go to families after the North County floods. Millions of dollars moved through shell organizations. Ana copied the records."

Sofia felt cold.

"And the box?"

"She told me she hid a backup. She said if anything happened to her, someone in her family would know where to look."

"Lake Briar."

Silence.

Then Maria whispered, "How do you know that name?"

Before Sofia could answer, headlights appeared at the entrance to the parking lot.

A black SUV turned in.

It moved slowly.

Too slowly.

Camila looked over her shoulder.

"Sofia."