Chapter 9 - The Marriage With Two Brides
Julian looked from Emma to the woman beside the SUV as if seeing two possible deaths.
"Emmy," he whispered.
The older woman smiled. "At least he remembers my real name."
Emma stopped ten feet away. "Release him."
"You came to save a man who tried to beat you. Mother always said you collected broken things."
Lydia stepped from behind a container.
Emmy's smile vanished.
For a long moment, mother and daughter stared at each other across twenty-nine stolen years.
"You are alive," Lydia said.
"That disappoints you?"
"It destroys me."
"Good."
Emmy lifted a small remote. Red lights blinked beneath the SUV and along the warehouse doors.
"Do not come closer. This pier is wired."
Ruth spoke through Emma's hidden earpiece from a surveillance position above the dock. "I see four charges. Maybe six. No clear shooter."
Emma kept her hands visible. "You opened box 117. What was inside?"
Emmy tilted her head. "A childhood drawing, a cassette tape, and a recipe for lemon cake. Mother always loved dramatic disappointment."
Lydia's voice broke. "The box was meant for you."
"Then why did it require Emma's fingerprint?"
"Because Gabriel changed the access after you vanished. I never knew."
"You never knew many things."
Julian struggled to sit up. "She has the ledger fragment."
Emmy kicked him in the ribs.
Emma's body moved forward before her mind approved. A laser dot appeared on her chest.
She stopped.
Emmy looked pleased. "Protective. That will be useful."
"You recruited Julian," Emma said.
"I evaluated him. He was ambitious, charming, and desperate to be admired. I spent three weeks teaching him what you liked, how you laughed, what made you trust. Then the Orchard introduced him to you."
Emma looked at Julian. "Did you know?"
His face twisted with shame. "I thought she was you using another name. When I met you again at the museum fundraiser, you acted as if we were strangers. They told me you were testing loyalty."
"And after you realized?"
"After the wedding."
"You stayed."
"I had already signed agreements. They had evidence against me. And I wanted the company."
There it was: not an excuse, only the ugly truth.
Emmy crouched beside him. "He also wanted me. Didn't you, Julian?"
He looked away.
Emma felt humiliation rise, but it no longer controlled her. "You can have him. I came for the information."
Julian looked wounded by the words, which almost made her laugh.
Emmy held up a small brass compass from the photograph Ruth had shown Emma.
"This was in the deposit box. The drawing told me where to find it."
Lydia whispered, "No."
"What does it unlock?" Emma asked.
"Not a place. A memory."
Emmy pressed the center of the compass. A melody played, thin and mechanical.
Emma knew it.
Their mother had hummed it during storms.
Images flashed in Emma's mind: the Maine house, the cedar tree, a hidden staircase, two little girls running through a tunnel.
Two girls.
Emma staggered.
"I remember you."
Emmy's face changed.
"You were there," Emma said. "I was not a baby. I remember your hand."
Lydia looked confused. "Emma, you were born years after Emmy disappeared."
"Then the memory is impossible."
Emmy stepped closer despite the explosives. "Unless you are not who they told you."
The remote beeped.
A timer appeared: sixty seconds.
Emmy tossed the compass to Emma.
"Ask Mother where she found you."
Then she dragged Julian toward the SUV.
Emma raised the false key. "You wanted this."
"No," Emmy said. "Father wanted it. I wanted you awake."
The SUV sped away.
Ruth shouted through the earpiece, "Charges are live. Run."
Emma grabbed Lydia's arm. They raced toward the river as the first warehouse door exploded behind them.
The blast threw Emma across the dock.
She hit the ground still holding the compass.
Its metal cover had sprung open.
Inside was a tiny photograph of Lydia standing beside two girls of nearly the same age.
One was Emmy.
The other was Emma.
May you like
On the back, Lydia had written a date.
The date was three years before Emma's official birth.
