Chapter 12 - Emily Called Me
The call came at 6:12 on a Sunday morning.
Unknown number.
“Hello?”
Silence.
Then:
“Dad?”
Twenty-two years disappeared in one syllable.
I sat down.
“Emily.”
Neither of us spoke for several seconds.
Her voice was older.
Lower.
But unmistakable.
“Is Maisie okay?”
“Yes.”
“Is she eating?”
“Yes.”
That question told me more about their recent life than I wanted to know.
“Where are you?”
“I can't tell you yet.”
I almost demanded an answer.
Then stopped.
“You don't have to.”
Silence.
“You've changed.”
“No. I'm trying to.”
She exhaled.
“Did you read the folder?”
“Yes.”
“All of it?”
“Yes.”
“Then you know.”
“I know I failed you.”
“That's not why I stayed gone.”
I gripped the phone.
“Why?”
“Because every year made coming back harder.”
That was painfully ordinary.
At first, she was afraid of Frank.
Then Allan.
Then exposure.
Then prosecution for participating in the false-death deception.
Then shame.
Then me.
Then she had a child.
The secret became her whole life.
“Why did you send Maisie?”
“I didn't.”
That startled me.
“What?”
“She ran.”
Emily's voice broke.
Veronica had located them again.
Emily moved Maisie temporarily to June's.
Maisie overheard enough to believe her mother was in danger.
She remembered my name from old stories.
She took the locket and left.
A seven-year-old crossed cities trying to find the grandfather she'd never met.
“Where are you now?”
“Safe.”
“Come home.”
The words escaped before I could stop them.
Emily became quiet.
I corrected myself.
May you like
“When you're ready.”
And for the first time, my daughter did not hang up.
