“I gave
it to Ashford’s representative.”
The name filled the room like smoke.
Emma sat down slowly.
I felt the floor harden beneath me, as if grief itself had weight.
“You gave away the report that might explain who Emma is?” I asked.
“I didn’t know that,” Jennifer cried. “I thought it was about property. Mother said Emma was using old documents to manipulate you. She said if the report got into the wrong hands, you could lose everything.”
Emma looked at her. “And you believed I would do that?”
Jennifer’s tears fell faster.
“I wanted to believe whatever made my life easiest,” she admitted.
The honesty did not fix anything.
But it was the first crack in a wall.
Michael lowered himself back into the chair, his voice small. “What have we done?”
No one answered him.
For the first time, he included himself.
The afternoon slipped into evening as Samuel
