Chapter 6 - Emma ReturnsEmma looked at Lily.
For seven years, she had dreamed of this moment.
But she did not move.
Lily stared at her.
“Mommy?”
Emma began crying.
Hannah stepped aside.
Emma slowly knelt.
“Yes.”
Lily ran into her arms.
The room became silent.
Ethan stood frozen.
He had imagined Lily's mother dead for years.
Now she was standing in front of him.
Alive.
Emma looked at him.
“I am sorry.”
Ethan shook his head.
“You should have told me.”
“I tried.”
“Why didn't you?”
“Because Victor found me.”
Ethan stepped closer.
“You let me believe my daughter was dead.”
Emma nodded through tears.
“I thought it would keep you alive.”
Claire asked the question nobody wanted to ask.
“Why did Victor want Lily?”
Emma looked toward the journal.
“Because Daniel discovered the truth.”
“What truth?”
Emma answered.
“Victor wasn't working alone.”
Ethan's expression hardened.
“Who was helping him?”
Emma hesitated.
“Someone inside your family.”
Hannah looked at her.
“Who?”
Emma shook her head.
“I never knew.”
Claire opened the journal.
“Maybe this tells us.”
Emma looked at the pages.
Her face changed.
“That isn't the original journal.”
Ethan frowned.
“What?”
“The original had a red seal.”
Hannah searched the cover.
There was no seal.
Emma whispered.
“Someone replaced it.”
Ethan looked at Claire.
Claire looked at Hannah.
The realization was terrifying.
The journal they had trusted might be fake.
Then Lily spoke.
“Grandma has the real one.”
Everyone froze.
Ethan stared at her.
“How do you know?”
Lily pointed toward the stairs.
“She showed it to me.”
Hannah knelt.
“When?”
“Before Christmas.”
Ethan immediately called Margaret.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
Emma looked frightened.
“We have to find her.”
A message appeared on Ethan's phone.
A photograph of Margaret.
She was sitting alone in a dark room.
Under the photograph was one sentence.
May you like
Bring the real journal.
And come before midnight.
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