"Daddy, There's Something Under the Table"

CHAPTER 1 - BENEATH THE TABLE

"Daddy... there's something under the table."

Six-year-old Sophie grabbed Daniel's wrist before he could lift his fork. Her eyes moved toward Vanessa, then down to the dark tablecloth.

Vanessa set down her wineglass too hard.

"She's always making things up!"

Daniel frowned. Vanessa had been part of their lives for eighteen months. Sophie adored her. Yet the warning in Vanessa's eyes was unmistakable.

Sophie tightened her grip.

"Then why did it touch my leg?"

Daniel placed his fork beside his plate and pulled Sophie against him. Across the long dining table, Vanessa rose from her chair.

Her burgundy dress caught the warm light from the chandelier.

Daniel reached for the tablecloth.

"Don't look under there!" Vanessa cried.

He paused, staring at the woman he had planned to marry that summer.

Then he lifted the heavy cloth.

A girl was curled beneath the table.

She looked ten or eleven. One side of her face was bruised, and her lower lip was split. She wore no coat despite the cold November night.

In both hands, she clutched a cracked blue phone.

"Oh, God..."

Daniel pulled Sophie behind him and crouched lower.

The girl looked so much like Vanessa that there could be no mistake about their connection.

"Who are you?" he whispered.

The child opened her mouth, but no sound came out.

Vanessa hurried around the table.

"Daniel, let me explain."

He stood and blocked her path.

"You told my daughter she was lying when you knew a frightened child was under our table."

Vanessa's face crumpled.

"Her name is Ruby. She's my niece."

A floorboard creaked somewhere above them.

Ruby scrambled from beneath the table and wrapped both arms around Vanessa's waist.

Her cracked phone slipped onto the carpet.

Then she whispered the words that made Daniel turn toward the dining room door.

"He found us."

Ruby's eyes lifted toward the ceiling.

"He's inside the house."