Chapter 2 - THE WOMAN IN THE ROBE
Cole locked the front door.
Not because anyone was a prisoner.
Because nobody was leaving until he understood what his pregnant wife had walked into.
Emily sat on the living room sofa.
Cole sat beside her.
His hand never left hers.
Carol remained across the room.
Officer Ruiz stood near the fireplace.
Richard refused to sit.
“Start talking.”
Cole's voice was quiet.
Richard stared at him.
“You don't give orders in my daughter's house.”
Cole looked around.
“This is my house.”
Richard's mouth closed.
Emily squeezed Cole's hand.
“Please.”
Cole immediately turned toward her.
“You don't have to explain anything you don't want to.”
“I do.”
She took a shaky breath.
“Three weeks ago, I found a box.”
Richard's expression hardened.
Emily saw it.
“So you know exactly which box.”
Richard said nothing.
Emily continued.
“It was in Dad's storage unit.”
Cole frowned.
“Why were you there?”
“He asked me to find some old tax records.”
Emily looked toward Carol.
“Instead, I found hospital paperwork.”
Carol lowered her eyes.
“There was a birth certificate.”
Emily swallowed.
“My birth certificate.”
Cole waited.
“The mother's name wasn't Diane Hale.”
Diane.
The woman Cole had always believed was Emily's mother.
The woman who had died from cancer five years earlier.
The woman Emily still talked about constantly.
The woman whose photograph sat on their mantel.
“The name was Carol Bennett.”
Cole looked across the room.
Carol nodded.
“I gave birth to Emily on March eighteenth, 1997.”
Richard snapped.
“Enough.”
Officer Ruiz shifted forward.
“Mr. Hale.”
Richard pointed toward Carol.
“She abandoned her.”
Carol stood.
“You told me she died.”
The room went silent.
Emily covered her mouth.
Cole stared at Richard.
Richard's confidence disappeared for the first time.
Carol's voice shook.
“I was nineteen.”
“My parents had thrown me out.”
“Richard was thirty-four.”
“He was married.”
Emily slowly looked at her father.
Richard wouldn't meet her eyes.
Carol continued.
“When Emily was born, Richard told me she had complications.”
“He said she didn't survive.”
Emily began crying again.
Cole put his arm around her.
“But she did survive.”
Carol nodded.
“Richard took her.”
Richard finally exploded.
“I saved her.”
“From what?”
Cole asked.
“From her.”
He pointed at Carol.
“She had nothing.”
Carol laughed bitterly.
“I had nothing because you made sure I had nothing.”
Richard stepped toward her.
Officer Ruiz moved between them.
“Stay where you are.”
Richard stopped.
Emily looked at Ruiz.
“Why are you here?”
Ruiz hesitated.
Then he answered.
“Because your father called the police.”
Cole's jaw tightened.
“About what?”
“You.”
Emily stared at her father.
Richard looked away.
Ruiz continued.
“He reported that you were emotionally unstable and threatening him.”
Emily's mouth fell open.
“I never threatened him.”
“I know.”
“How?”
Ruiz reached into his pocket.
He placed his phone on the coffee table.
“Because I heard what happened.”
Richard's face drained of color.
Ruiz looked at Cole.
“Your wife called 911 forty-three minutes before you arrived.”
Emily shook her head.
“No, I didn't.”
Ruiz nodded toward her phone.
“You didn't mean to.”
Emily suddenly remembered.
Her hand went to her pocket.
“The emergency shortcut.”
Ruiz nodded.
“Your phone called dispatch while it was in your pocket.”
Cole's eyes slowly moved toward the scratches on Emily's arm.
“What did dispatch hear?”
Nobody answered immediately.
May you like
Then Ruiz looked at Richard.
“Everything.”
