Chapter 1

The chill of the late October air hit me the moment I stepped out of the airport.

My flight back from shooting in Alaska was long. All I wanted was to hug Sophia.

The house was too quiet.

Ethan stood in the living room, his back to me.

"Ethan? Where's Sophia?"

He turned slowly. His face was a mask I didn't recognize.

"Emily. Sophia... there was an accident."

My blood ran cold. "What accident? Where is she?"

"The terrace cabin," he said, his voice flat. "She broke the sailboat model. I told her to stay out there and think about what she did."

The model boat. The one he treasured, the one he said Chloe Jennings gave him as a child.

"It got cold. The power went out in the cabin. By the time I checked..."

He didn't need to finish.

Sophia. My little girl. Punished in the cold, alone.

Because of a toy boat.

Later, after the silence of the house became unbearable, I walked into Ethan's study.

I needed something, anything, a reason.

His laptop was open. A video call.

A woman, blonde, her dress slipping off one shoulder, laughed into the camera. Chloe Jennings.

She pouted, her voice a low purr. "Ethan, honey, are you still there?"

Ethan's voice, raw, "Just a minute, Chloe."

He clicked off the call.

He stared at a large, framed photo of Chloe on his wall. It was an artsy shot, her looking ethereal.

"If that damn sailboat model hadn't broken," he whispered, his voice thick. "If Emily hadn't been away, I wouldn't need you to... distract me like this. You'll never be her. Never."

Her. Chloe.

Not me. Not Sophia.

A model boat, a symbol of his misplaced devotion, had cost my daughter her life.

The world tilted. I leaned against the doorframe, the wood cold against my skin.

My daughter was gone.

And I was a ghost in my own marriage, replaced by a fantasy.