Chapter 14 - EMMA'S IMPOSSIBLE CHOICE
Emma answered her phone only after my fourth call.
“I'm safe,” she said before I could speak.
“Where are you?”
“At the hospital where Rebecca was last seen.”
The place was now a rehabilitation center, renovated so extensively that none of its old signs remained.
Emma said a volunteer had recognized Rebecca's photograph and believed she was receiving outpatient treatment under another name.
“Why didn't you tell us?” I demanded.
“Because every time we find a lead, somebody scares us away.”
Her voice broke.
“Mom, I just wanted to find one good thing before another horrible thing happened.”
I understood her longing, but I would not pretend it made the danger disappear.
“Stay in the reception area,” I told her.
“We're coming with help.”
Marisol contacted investigators already assigned to the case, and Sophie drove while Lily watched the road behind us.
At the center, Emma sat beneath a painting of a blue lake, clutching a folded admission leaflet.
An older nurse stood beside her.
“She was here,” the nurse said.
“Rebecca came for physical therapy twice a month.”
“When was the last visit?”
“Tuesday.”
The nurse hesitated.
“She asked whether a woman named Emily had forgiven her.”
I pressed a fist against my mouth.
“We were told she died.”
The nurse's eyes softened.
“Then I think she has been told something equally cruel about you.”
Emma hugged me so hard my ribs hurt.
“I thought bringing her home would fix everything,” she whispered.
“Nothing that happened to her is yours to fix alone,” I said.
A staff member returned with a message left in an envelope at the desk.
It was addressed to me in Rebecca's handwriting.
There were only two sentences.
I'm not hiding from my daughters anymore. But the person who kept me away is not Arthur Vale.
Beneath the message was a date and an address.
May you like
Tomorrow, 6:00 p.m. The old courthouse.
