Authors note: Hello everyone. I would like to take this opportunity to apologize for the really long delay on this update. I suffered from terrible writers block as well as the chaos of work. I would like to thank Diablo Priest for their review along with anyone else who has reviewed. And now on with chapter three of When three became two:Hall family
Karen watched her eyes wide as Matthew and Sophie screamed.
Sophie's little body twisted and turned as she tumbled down the roof of the veranda and Matthew felt his world shatter around him as he saw his baby girl near the edge. Her eyes were clenched shut tight and her arms waved around searching for something to stop her fall, searching for a lifeline to save her.
"Hold on!" Matthew yelled seeing her hands near the guttering. "Sophie! Hold on!"
Sophie's hands grabbed the plastic guttering as her body dangled below her. Tears slid down her smooth cheeks as she screamed and screamed. "Daddy help me! Help me!" The sharp edge of the gutter cut into her soft skin of her fingers and the sight of her own blood only made her scream more.
Karen watched Sophie dangling from the roof edge, a dark smirk spreading along her thin blood red lips and she flashed a pearly white smile. "Drop my dear girl" She smirked. "A little girl like you never deserved to live"
Matthew watched in horror as Sophie dangled from the guttering, her legs thrashing from side to side. He ran forward trying to stand underneath her. He saw her little hands slipping on the plastic and knew she couldn't hold on much longer.
"Sophie! My baby girl" He cried holding his arms up. "Let go, I'm going to catch you!"
Sophie peered down at him, her eyes red and puffy as she screamed. "I'm scared" She sobbed kicking against the pillars of the veranda, knocking one of her black leather shoes clean off of her foot. Matthew caught the shoe and threw it the floor. "I'm going to catch you baby!" He called. "Daddy's going to catch you"
Closing her bright blue tear filled eyes and biting down hard on her lip, Sophie let go of the guttering and slipped into free fall from the second floor roof. Matthew could see his daughter's whole life flicker before his eyes as he watched her falling. His arms were open ready to catch her and he never let her out of his sight, not for one single second.
He cried out in relief as his arms swung out, grabbing Sophie as soon as she came into reach and pulling her in close to his chest. It had seemed like she had been falling for days and as he wrapped her up in his arms, Sophie had never seemed so small.
Sophie shook violently in his arms, her little arms and legs wrapped around him and her tears soaking the shoulder of his shirt. Her pale pink dress was ripped and dirtied and her hands were cut and blood stained.
Karen came strolling out of the house with a bag tossed over her shoulder. She smiled as if nothing had happened and walked past Matthew and Sophie. She smirked. "That rat of a child had a lucky escape; I don't know what you see in her. She's no child of mine!" Her eyes were wide and her smile was dark. Matthew held Sophie as close as he could. "Get away, get away I'm calling the police" He spat staring into her cold deathly glare.
She smirked walking down her pathway and climbing into her car. "They will never find me, I'm not Karen Hall anymore, you'll be receiving the divorce papers tomorrow. I was hoping that they would have come with a death certificate for your precious little girl but the rat lived on. That isn't to say that she will live to see old age" She said with a sinister chuckle that would match the cackle of a fairy tale villain. "Sophie Madeline Hall, watch your silly little step and stay close to daddy. You're lucky to be alive"
With that, Karen was gone. She drove away as if today was any other humdrum day, smiling at her family as if she was mother of the year. She had murder coursing through her very veins and her own hate campaign was focused on destroying the life of her own little girl.
Matthew rubbed his cheek softly against Sophie's smooth golden curls and held her head close to his shoulder. "Shh, she's gone now. She is never coming back. It's just going to be me and you now." He whispered only to be answered by whimpers and a whisper of 'Daddy'. Wrapping his coat around her trembling body, he walked into the house with her in his arms. "This is the last time we are going to enter this house. I promise Sophie." He said. "We are going to get a new house, new everything, and you get to choose everything"
Sophie looked up at him and put her tiny bloody hands on his cheeks. "No more monster mom, just you and me?" She whispered. He nodded and kissed her head in his own silent promise. "Do... do I get to be a writer?" She asked and he chuckled to her. "Yes my sweet girl, now you can be anything you want to be" He said as he carried her into her bedroom and grabbed a few empty boxes.
"Help me pack up everything that you want baby girl" He said. "Then we will go, stay in a hotel until we get a new house". Sophie nodded silently. "Will it be as nice as this house?" She asked. "No" Matthew smiled packing up her copies of the New Yorker. "It will be nicer". A big bright smile spread across her face. "Daddy can we have a house near central park, near West land Avenue" She asked. "Its so pretty there"
Matthew smiled and ruffled her hair. "Anything for my little princess" He said as together they packed up the last of her and his belongings. Sophie followed him like a lost puppy as he walked back and forth packing everything into the car, a little hand wrapped into the fabric of his shirt. He smiled reassuringly to her and wiped her teary eyes. "Dot be scared Soph, you've got me, ill protect you and you know it" He whispered. He looked around checking that he had everything they needed. He nodded and smiled to himself. "And now my most important belonging"
"Whats your most important possession daddy?" Sophie smiled looking up at him with her big beautiful blue eyes.
He laughed swinging down and picking her up, wrapping her safely in his arms as he simply said. "You"