“Because it said you might send me away if you knew.”
The sentence struck with such force that I had to look down.
“Send you where?”
“To Aunt Rachel.”
Claire’s younger sister lived in Oregon. Emma loved her, but I had never suggested sending Emma to live with her. Not once.
“Whoever wrote that note lied to you.”
“I know that now.”
“How?”
“Because yesterday you believed me.”
Her answer broke something open inside me.
Emma had not been testing whether I could find the truth. She had been testing whether the truth would cost her my love.
I drew her close again.
“There is nothing you can tell me that would make me stop being your father.”
“What if I make a bad choice?”
“Then we talk about it. We learn. We repair what we can.”
“What if it is a very bad choice?”
“You still come home to me.”
She leaned into my shoulder.
Outside, Mrs. Patel called good morning to someone passing on the sidewalk. The ordinary sound made the open door feel even more unsettling.
I closed and locked it, then called Sergeant Mercer.
She answered immediately.
“Is Emma safe?”
“Yes, but someone may have entered my house.”
I explained the missing key, the open door, and the anonymous email. Mercer instructed us not to touch the handle or porch rail again. She and Officer Diaz arrived twelve minutes later.
