Chapter 11 - The BuyerI didn't sleep that night.
Every sound outside the motel room made me sit upright.
At dawn, Emily told us everything she knew.
When she was three days old, Wayne arranged for her to leave the hospital.
She was given another baby's bracelet.
The official record said she died.
But she didn't.
She was sold.
To a family in Missouri.
They raised her under another name.
At nineteen, she discovered her adoption papers had been falsified.
At twenty, she found a photograph of Mama.
At twenty-one, she found Russell.
And at twenty-two, she found the name of the man who had purchased her original placement.
Arthur Voss.
“Who is he?” I asked.
Emily looked at Samuel.
“A businessman.”
“What kind?”
“The kind who owns hospitals.”
Samuel added, “And private security firms.”
I stared.
“How powerful?”
“He has friends everywhere.”
“Is he the one who called me?”
Emily nodded.
“How do you know?”
“Because he used to call me.”
“What did he want?”
“To remind me that families like ours don't get happy endings.”
The sentence hung over us.
Then Russell's phone rang.
He answered.
His face changed.
“What?”
He listened.
Then stood.
“What happened?”
He covered the phone.
“Mama's house is on fire.”
We drove there.
Smoke rose above the trees.
Fire trucks blocked the road.
The pantry was burned.
The rest of the house had suffered heavy damage.
I stood behind the police tape, staring.
“My mother's house.”
Emily stood beside me.
“I'm sorry.”
A firefighter approached.
“We found something.”
He handed me a scorched metal object.
The flour tin.
The paint had peeled away.
But the inside was intact.
And beneath the false bottom was a sealed plastic packet.
Inside was a letter.
Not Mama's handwriting.
Wayne's.
I unfolded it.
Margaret,
You were wrong to trust Mercer.
My heart stopped.
The baby you think belongs to him belongs to me.
I looked at Emily.
She was reading over my shoulder.
The next line made my blood freeze.
Daniel never fathered either girl.
I couldn't breathe.
Then:
The real father is still alive.
At the bottom was one final sentence.
And he has been watching Linda since the accident.
Emily stepped back.
“Who?”
I looked at the road.
A black sedan was parked across from the house.
Its windows were tinted.
The driver was watching us.
I raised my hand.
The car moved.
By the time police turned the corner, it was gone.
Then I saw something on the sidewalk.
A business card.
Black.
Embossed in silver.
ARTHUR VOSS
On the back:
You have until Friday.
I looked at the sky.
Today was Wednesday.
“What happens Friday?”
May you like
Emily's face went white.
“He comes for one of us.”
