Chapter 8 - The man expected Émilie to collapse.She didn't.
She stepped forward.
“Who was adopted?”
He smiled.
“That's the question, isn't it?”
Gabriel attacked.
He slammed the man against the wall.
The room erupted into chaos.
Two more men appeared in the doorway.
Émilie ran.
She heard shouting behind her.
She sprinted through the hallway.
Down the stairs.
Out the side door.
A car screeched nearby.
Atlas appeared from nowhere.
He ran straight toward her.
“Atlas!”
The dog stopped in front of her.
His eyes locked onto hers.
Then he turned and ran.
Émilie followed.
Across the playground.
Through an alley.
Into an abandoned church.
Atlas stopped before the altar.
Émilie reached him, breathless.
The dog pawed at a loose stone.
Gabriel entered seconds later.
He looked at the floor.
“Move.”
Together they lifted the stone.
Beneath it was a small metal box.
Inside was a cassette tape.
A handwritten label read:
FOR THE DAUGHTER WHO THINKS SHE IS ÉMILIE.
Émilie's hands trembled.
“There are two daughters.”
Gabriel nodded.
She inserted the tape into an old player.
Her mother's voice filled the room.
“If you are hearing this, then I failed.”
Émilie closed her eyes.
“I need you to understand something. The girl you remember as yourself was not the girl I held on the night they came.”
Émilie stiffened.
“There were two babies.”
The recording crackled.
“Lucie was my biological daughter.”
Émilie stopped breathing.
“And Émilie was the child of another woman.”
Gabriel whispered:
“Oh, God.”
The recording continued.
“Her mother died protecting her. I promised to raise her.”
Émilie stared at the floor.
“My mother…”
“She was never supposed to know the truth.”
Gabriel looked at her.
“Then why call you Émilie?”
The tape answered.
“Because Lucie was the one they wanted.”
The room became silent.
“Victor believed Lucie carried information he could use.”
“What information?” Émilie whispered.
Her mother's recorded voice continued.
“So I switched the girls.”
Gabriel closed his eyes.
“Your mother made you Lucie.”
Émilie shook her head.
“No.”
“She changed the identities.”
“No.”
“She raised you as Lucie.”
“No.”
The tape clicked.
Then her mother's voice returned.
“And I sent the real Lucie away with someone I trusted.”
Émilie grabbed the player.
“Who?”
The tape had almost ended.
One final sentence.
“The old man with the dog.”
The machine clicked off.
Émilie stared at Atlas.
The dog looked back.
Then he turned and walked toward the church doors.
Émilie followed.
Outside stood the woman from the car.
Her mother.
Alive.
Émilie froze.
The woman slowly removed her hood.
Their eyes met.
“My name is Marianne.”
Émilie's lips trembled.
“Maman.”
Marianne shook her head.
“Don't call me that.”
“Why?”
“Because you have to remember who you are.”
Émilie stepped closer.
“Who am I?”
Marianne looked at Atlas.
Then at her.
“You are not Émilie.”
A car stopped across the street.
Two men stepped out.
Marianne turned pale.
“They found you.”
“Who?”
She grabbed Émilie's wrist.
“Your father.”
“You said Victor was dead.”
Marianne whispered:
“He is.”
Then someone inside the parked car laughed.
A man's voice came through an open window.
“No, Marianne.”
The car door opened.
A man stepped out.
Older.
Tall.
Gray-haired.
He looked directly at Émilie.
May you like
And smiled.
“I've been waiting twenty years for my daughter to come home.”
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