Chapter 4 - St. Anne's

The paper was no bigger than a postage stamp.

Emily unfolded it with trembling fingers while everyone around us seemed to forget how to breathe.

Three words were written in faded blue ink.

Sister Agnes knows.

Thomas moved first.

He grabbed the note.

I slapped his hand away.

"Don't touch it."

His eyes flashed. "Margaret, this is insanity."

"Then why are you trying to take the evidence?"

The word evidence changed the room.

Thomas heard it too.

He stepped back and smoothed his jacket. The polished executive returned in an instant.

"Fine," he said. "Call a lawyer. Call the police. Call whoever you want. But when this turns out to be some disgusting scam, don't expect me to clean it up."

He walked out without looking at me.

That hurt more than I expected.

Not because he left.

Because he did not deny knowing St. Anne's.

Two hours later, I sat in the back office of the restaurant with Emily, Daniel, and Kevin. I had called my attorney, Sarah Bennett, who told me not to let the original locket or note out of our sight. She arranged for a private DNA collection the next morning.

Emily looked overwhelmed.

"I don't want your money," she said suddenly.

I stared at her. "I never said you did."

"People like him think that's why someone like me would do this."

"People like him have been telling me what to think for eighteen years."

For the first time, she gave me a real look, not the careful look of an employee speaking to a customer.

"Did you really have a daughter?"

"Yes. Her name was Elise Margaret Ashford."

Emily's eyes filled.

"My middle name is Elise."

I stopped breathing.

"Who gave you that name?"

"Sister Agnes."

Daniel leaned forward.

"Then she's alive?"

Emily nodded. "I think so. She moved to a retirement home in Vermont. My foster mom got a Christmas card from her last year."

My phone buzzed.

A message from Thomas.

COME HOME. ALONE. WE NEED TO TALK BEFORE YOU DESTROY THIS FAMILY.

I showed Sarah over video call.

"Do not go alone," she said.

But another message appeared before I could answer.

This one contained a photograph.

It was a picture of Emily leaving the restaurant through the employee entrance.

Taken minutes earlier.

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Under it, Thomas had written:

SOME DOORS SHOULD STAY CLOSED.