Sofia still looked up. “They had a furnace in the back of the estate. When I turned eighteen, the vile man took me up there and showed me the ashes. He said that’s where his grandfather used to get rid of the bodies. His grandfather stopped burning them there because his grandmother complained about the smell. But the furnace still worked. And if I ever tried to leave him, he would shackle me to that furnace and set it on low and come back in two weeks, and by then, I’d be ashes too.”
Sofia looked straight at Wilde. Wilde opened his mouth to say something—he wasn’t sure what—but she stopped him with a shake of her head.
“Let me get through this, okay?”
Wilde may have nodded.
“One day I met your father. It’s not important how or why. I fell in love with him. I was so scared. For me. For him. But”—she smiled now—“I was too selfish to give him up. I started to live a double life. God, we were both so young. I didn’t tell your father the truth. I should have, of course. But he was leaving to serve overseas anyway. It couldn’t last, and I was okay with that. We would only have two months together. That’s more than I could ask for. After that, I could stay with the vile man and live off the memories.” She smiled and shook her head. “That’s the sort of nonsense you tell yourself when you’re young. Can you guess what happened next?”
Wilde said, “You got pregnant.”
“Yes. I didn’t tell your father. You can understand that. Your father hadn’t asked for any of this. I was afraid he’d want to do the right thing, get married, and then the vile man and his vile family would find out the truth. Your father was—is—a strong man, but he was no match for this kind of family. No one man is.”
“So you pretended the vile man was the father?”
Sofia Carter nodded. “I told myself that was best. I would break it off with your father to protect him. I’d have his baby and say it was the vile man’s, and this way I would always have a piece of your father.” Sofia shook her head with a sad smile. “That was the young girl’s foolish fantasy. So crazy when I look back on it now.”
“So what happened?” Wilde asked.
“I tried to stick to my plan, but two years later, when your father finished serving, he came back for me. I tried to stay away, but the heart wants what the heart wants. I told him the truth. The whole truth this time. I thought that would repel him—when he knew who I really was, what I’d really done. But it didn’t. He wanted us to run away. He wanted to confront the vile man. But we’d have no chance. You get that, right?”
Wilde nodded.
“The FBI was always trying to turn anyone close to this family. No one ever accepted because we all knew that the family would find out. Then they’d kill you slowly. But your father and I, we were crazy in love. I decided to risk it. What other choice did I have? So I went to the FBI. They promised your father and I witness relocation if I got them more information. They sent me back to live with the vile man. I wore a wire. I stole documents. I got them more info. But then something went wrong. Very wrong.”
“They found out you’d turned?”
“Worse,” Sofia said. “The vile man found out he was not your father.”
The room seemed to hush. In the distance, Wilde heard the whir of a lawnmower.
“How?”
“Someone in the FBI leaked it to him.”
“What did you do?”
“I got a heads-up, so I just jumped in the car with you and drove away. I called your father. A friend of his had a house by a lake we could use. No one would find us. That’s what I thought. So you and I, we ran here. I was afraid to call the FBI. They’d been the leak. But we did know George Kissell by then. I called him when we got to this house. He said to sit tight. So I did. Except the vile man found us here first. He came with three other men. I saw them pull up right out there, right where George is parked now. The vile man came to the door and started pounding on it. He had a knife in his hand. He started screaming about how—”
She stopped, her chest hitching.
“—how he was going to slit you open right in front of me. I was so scared, desperate. You have no idea. I’m standing right here, right where I am now…”
Her eyes looked off as though she were back and seeing it.
“The vile man is coming in, trying to break the door down. What can I do? So I hide you under the stairs. I tell you to stay quiet. But that’s not enough. The door gives away. The vile man bursts in. All I can think is that I need to get him away from you. I scream as loud as I can and I run upstairs. The vile man follows. That’s good, I think. He’s not downstairs. He’s farther away from my son. I get to a bedroom window. He’s right behind me. So I jump out into the hedges. I want to get them all away from you. You’re safe in that closet. So I run across the street and into the woods. The vile man and his men run after me. That’s good. They won’t find you. Maybe they’ll think you’re with me. I run. It’s dark. At times I think I can actually escape them. But then what? I can’t lose them because then they might give up and go back to the house and find you. So I keep running and sometimes I’ll even make a noise so they stay close to me. I barely care if I get caught. Because if I do, if they kill me, you’ll still be alive. I don’t know how long we do this. Hours. And then…then they catch me.”