Chapter 10 - Emma's Secret
Nathan hung up and turned to Mills.
“She wants Emma.”
Mills’s expression sharpened. “Why?”
Nathan did not know.
But Emma did.
When he returned to the mansion, she listened to the demand without interruption.
Then she sat down at the kitchen island.
The same island where flour still clung inside the grooves from yesterday’s baking.
“There’s something I didn’t tell you,” she said.
Nathan’s patience snapped. “That sentence is becoming a problem.”
“I know.”
“Then say it.”
Emma took a breath. “Daniel Kerr is my father.”
Nathan stared at her.
The room became very quiet.
“What?”
“My mother worked for Claire’s family. Daniel was married when they met. He left before I was born.”
“You knew he was your father when you came here?”
“Yes.”
Nathan stepped back as if distance would help him think.
“Did Claire know?”
“She found out shortly before she died. That’s why she trusted my mother. We had no relationship with Daniel. My mother hated him.”
Nathan’s anger rose fast. “You should have told me.”
“Yes.”
“You lived under my roof. You cared for my children. You knew the man threatening them was your father.”
“I knew he had done something terrible years ago. I didn’t know Victoria was involved until I saw them together.”
Nathan pointed toward the hallway. “You let me think you were just a housekeeper.”
“I am a housekeeper.”
“You came here with a purpose.”
“Yes. To keep your daughters safe.”
“That wasn’t your decision to make.”
Emma’s eyes flashed for the first time. “Somebody had to make it.”
Nathan went still.
She regretted the words immediately, but she did not take them back.
“You were gone,” she said more quietly. “Not once. Constantly. New York. Denver. London. Chicago. Victoria controlled the house because you gave her the space to do it.”
Nathan’s face hardened.
Emma’s voice shook now. “I tried to reach you. Rachel tried. Theodore tried. Ava tried in her own way. You were not evil, Nathan. You were absent. There’s a difference, but children still feel the empty chair.”
The words landed where nothing else had.
Nathan looked toward the family room where his daughters sat with a deputy.
He had no defense.
Mills entered from the hallway. “We found the warehouse. Tactical team is moving.”
Nathan nodded.
Then Ava appeared behind him holding Claire’s old diary.
“Dad?”
He turned.
“I found Emma’s name.”
Nathan’s eyes shifted to the diary.
Ava opened to a marked page.
May you like
Claire had written one sentence in blue ink:
If anything happens to me, Emma Reed may be the only person Daniel cannot predict.
