Chapter 5 - The Place Emily Had Been Hiding
David found Emily the following morning.
She had been staying at Grace Harbor, a temporary shelter for women with infants, thirty miles from the roadside.
I drove there alone.
No security.
No driver.
No expensive jacket.
Only the clothes I had been wearing when I saw her.
Emily sat beneath a tree behind the shelter with Noah and Eli sleeping in a double stroller donated by a local church.
When she saw me, she stood immediately.
Her hands moved toward the stroller.
Protective.
Afraid.
I stopped several feet away.
“I’m not here to take them.”
“You already took everything else.”
Her voice was quiet.
That hurt more than anger.
“I know Ashley framed you.”
Emily laughed once.
There was no humor in it.
“You know now.”
“I found the hospital record.”
Her face changed.
“You found it?”
“She paid to erase it.”
Emily looked toward the shelter building.
“I told them you would come.”
“At the hospital?”
“Every day.”
The words nearly brought me to my knees.
“They said you refused my calls. Then a lawyer came.”
“Daniel Price?”
She nodded.
“He told me you wanted no contact and would accuse me of fraud if I named you as the father.”
I closed my eyes.
“What did you try to tell me the night I threw you out?”
“That I was pregnant.”
Her answer came without hesitation.
“I had taken three tests. I had an appointment scheduled. Ashley already knew because she found the receipt in my purse.”
I could barely speak.
“The twins—”
“They are yours.”
My knees weakened.
Emily’s face hardened.
“But that does not make you their father.”
I accepted the sentence.
Biology was not absolution.
“Can I prove it properly?”
“Why?”
“To protect their rights. Not to take yours.”
She studied me.
“You believed her over me.”
“I did.”
“You let security remove me while I was pregnant.”
“I did.”
“You froze every account.”
“I did.”
“You never looked for me.”
I forced myself not to defend anything.
“I did all of that.”
No excuse could survive the facts.
“I am not asking you to forgive me.”
“Then what are you asking?”
“For permission to repair what can still be repaired.”
Emily looked down at the babies.
“Noah needed specialized formula. Eli had breathing problems after birth. I begged the hospital to contact you because I could not afford the medication.”
My throat closed.
“Did they get treatment?”
“A nurse helped us through a charity fund.”
Not my money.
Not my insurance.
A stranger’s charity.
I reached into my pocket, then stopped.
Money offered directly would look too much like Ashley’s bill in the dirt.
“What do you need today?”
“A lawyer who is not connected to you.”
“I’ll pay one chosen entirely by you.”
“And housing that you cannot remove if you become angry again.”
Patricia had already prepared an answer.
A protected residence could be placed in trust for the twins and Emily, controlled by an independent trustee.
“No conditions,” I said.
Emily’s eyes narrowed.
“There are always conditions.”
“Then you write them.”
For the first time, her expression shifted.
Not trust.
But consideration.
Then a dark sedan slowed near the shelter entrance.
Emily’s face went pale.
I turned.
May you like
Ashley sat in the passenger seat.
She had found us.
