Chapter 14 - Emily Returns to the Mansion
Four years after Daniel burst through the mansion doors, Emily returned.
The property was being sold.
Vanessa asked whether she wanted anything before the estate was cleared.
Emily brought Lily, now nine.
The child remembered little about the worst night.
She remembered Grandpa shouting.
She remembered sleeping at his house afterward.
She remembered a broken bracelet.
In the ballroom, Emily found the marble spot where it had fallen.
Nothing marked it.
Lily ran toward the windows.
“Mom, look at the ocean!”
Emily joined her.
The view remained beautiful.
For years she had felt guilty remembering anything beautiful about a
place where frightening things happened.
She no longer needed memory to be simple.
Lily asked whether Emily missed living there.
“Sometimes.”
“Do you want it back?”
Emily looked around.
“No.”
Vanessa handed her an evidence-return envelope.
Inside was the silver bracelet.
The tracker had been removed.
Lily asked what Emily would do with it.
“I don’t know.”
“Make it into something else.”
May you like
Emily looked at her daughter.
That sounded right.
