Chapter 4 - Emma Sent Naomi One Message
Naomi placed an old phone on the table.
The message had arrived from an unknown number.
Naomi, you were kind to me at St. Matthew’s. I need to know what you
remember.
Attached was a photograph.
A young woman stood beside a lake.
Fourteen years old.
Cameron knew her instantly.
Emma had Claire’s mouth.
His eyes.
And the tiny crescent-shaped birthmark beneath her left ear.
Cameron sat down.
“She’s alive.”
Naomi nodded.
The message continued.
Emma said she had grown up under another name.
She remembered almost nothing before age seven.
For years she had been told her parents died in the crash.
Then she found a locked box belonging to the woman who raised her.
Inside were newspaper clippings about Cameron Hale.
And a photograph of herself.
Naomi had exchanged only three messages with her.
Then Emma disappeared again.
Her account was deleted.
Cameron asked why Naomi waited six months.
“Because somebody came to my apartment the next day.”
“Who?”
“A man who knew Sofie’s preschool.”
May you like
Cameron’s face hardened.
“He told me some dead children are safer staying dead.”
