I came home from deployment 3 weeks early. My daughter wasn’t home. My wife said she’s at her mother’s. I drove to Aurora. Sophie was in the guest cottage. Locked in. Freezing. Crying. “Grandmother said disobedient girls need correction.” It was midnight. 4°C. 12 hours alone. I broke her out. She whispered, “Dad, don’t look in the filing cabinet…” What I found there was… – Part 2

I felt a chill crawl up my spine.

The entries looked almost identical to Sophie’s records.

Just older.

Much older.

“Detective,” I said slowly, “how far back does that go?”

He flipped to the last page.

“Nineteen years.”

Laura’s face drained of color.

“That’s… when I was eight.”

Exactly Sophie’s age.

The realization hit all of us at the same time.

Evelyn hadn’t started this with Sophie.

She had been doing it for decades.

Laura’s Memories

Laura stared at the pages like she was looking at ghosts.

“I don’t remember this.”

Her voice sounded hollow.

Bennett raised an eyebrow.

“You don’t remember being punished?”

“I remember discipline,” she said quickly. “But not this.”

I picked up one of the pages.

“Laura… it says you were locked outside in the snow.”