Chapter 2 - THE CHILD BEHIND THE PROMISE
Emma drove through the storm without a destination. Lily slept against the car door, exhausted from crying, while the message glowed on the dashboard screen.
You don't know why he bought it.
Emma called the number twice. No answer. On the third attempt, someone picked up but remained silent.
"Who is this?" Emma asked.
A woman finally spoke. "My name is Claire. I work at the music store. Your husband asked me to keep quiet."
Emma pulled beneath the awning of a closed pharmacy. Claire explained that Marcus had ordered the piano under Lily's name, then changed the delivery address after paying the deposit. He had insisted the alteration never appear on the family invoice. When Claire refused, he threatened to have her fired through a friend who owned part of the store.
"Why contact me?" Emma asked.
"Because your daughter came in with him," Claire said. "She played the sample piano. She looked so happy. I couldn't stop thinking about her."
Emma looked at Lily sleeping beneath a red jacket. "Did he say who the piano was for?"
"A boy named Ethan. But there was something else. A woman met him in the parking lot. She handed him a folder marked custody evaluation."
Emma's heartbeat changed.
"What woman?"
"I don't know. Blonde, expensive coat. He called her Rebecca."
Emma knew the name. Rebecca Sloan had been Marcus's college girlfriend and was now a family-law attorney.
At midnight, Emma checked into a roadside motel using cash from the emergency bag. Lily woke while Emma was hanging wet clothes over the heater.
"Are we going home tomorrow?" she asked.
Emma sat beside her. "I don't know yet."
Lily opened her backpack and removed a folded school worksheet. At the bottom, in a child's uneven handwriting, was a sentence that made Emma's chest tighten:
My dad says Ethan may live with us, and then I have to be good so he won't leave again.
"When did Daddy say that?" Emma asked.
Lily stared at the floor. "He said you get jealous when he helps Ethan. He said maybe families work better when children don't complain."
Emma fought to keep her voice calm. "Did he tell you not to tell me?"
Lily nodded.
A knock sounded at the motel door.
Emma froze.
May you like
No one knew where they were.
She looked through the peephole and saw Adrian standing in the rain.
