Chapter 2 - THE WOMAN ON THE SCREEN
Nobody moved until the glass finished breaking.
Then Ryan laughed.
“You hear that? He's telling a grieving child her mother came back from the dead.”
Lily's fingers tightened around mine.
“Don't make it a joke,” she whispered.
“I'm not.”
I called Rosa Medina, the nurse who had found me. She answered on the second ring.
“James?”
“Can she talk?”
“A little. Put your camera on.”
Ryan lunged for my phone. The security guard caught his wrist.
“You stay back, sir.”
The screen flickered. A white pillow appeared, then a woman's face, thinner than I remembered, with a small scar beside her eyebrow.
Emily.
My sister swallowed. Her mouth trembled before sound came out.
“Bug?”
Lily made a noise I had never heard from a child. Half gasp, half sob.
Only Emily called her that.
“Mommy?”
“Hi, baby.”
Lily pressed both hands against the screen.
“I saved your chair.”
Emily closed her eyes. Rosa steadied the phone.
“I know you did,” my sister whispered.
Ryan started talking over her.
“She has a brain injury. She doesn't understand what's happening. James is exploiting her condition.”
Two police officers entered behind a club manager. One stayed with Ryan. The other knelt beside us and introduced herself as Detective Ortiz; she had been nearby when the call came in.
She watched Emily say Lily's name again.
“Where are you, ma'am?”
“Cedar House. Outside Waco.”
Rosa took over. “I'm her nurse. She's asking for help. Her contact requests haven't been getting through.”
Ortiz asked the club manager for a quiet room. Then she asked Lily, gently, whether her father had hurt her.
Lily stared at Ryan.
“Am I allowed to say?”
Something changed in the detective's face.
“Yes.”
A bridesmaid stepped forward with her phone. “I was recording the toast. I got all of it.”
Ryan turned on her. “Delete that.”
The second officer moved between them.
Across the room, my mother, Ruth, stood beside the wedding cake. She was crying, but she wasn't looking at Emily on my screen.
She was looking at Ryan.
Then Rosa's voice sharpened.
“James, listen. A transport company just called to confirm pickup.”
“What pickup?”
“Your sister is scheduled to leave tonight.”
May you like
Emily reached toward the phone.
“Don't let him move me again.”
