Chapter 2 - The Locket of Secrets
By the next morning,
Emma was awake,
though she remained painfully shy.
She wouldn't eat until Lily took a bite first,
watching my daughter with a mixture of awe and fear.
"Aunt Karen said I wasn't supposed to talk to anyone,"
Emma whispered,
her fingers twisting the matted fur of her teddy bear.
"Who is Aunt Karen,
Emma?"
I asked,
keeping my voice low and soothing.
"She lived with Mommy,"
the girl replied,
"in the small house by the woods."
"She told me I was a secret,
a special secret that the world wasn't ready for."
My blood ran cold at the word "secret."
"Did your mommy ever talk about me?"
Emma looked at me,
her emerald eyes shimmering with tears.
"She had a picture,"
she said,
reaching into the small,
hidden pocket of her worn sweater.
She pulled out a silver locket,
tarnished and scratched,
hanging from a cheap piece of string.
I froze.
I knew that locket.
I had bought it for Grace on our first anniversary,
engraved with our initials and a date that changed our lives.
I took it from her trembling hand,
my fingers shaking as I pried it open.
Inside was a photo of me,
younger and smiling,
standing next to a pregnant Grace.
But there was something else,
a tiny piece of paper tucked behind the photo.
I pulled it out with tweezers,
unfolding the delicate parchment.
It was a note,
written in Grace’s elegant,
looping script.
"Marcus,
they are coming for the second one."
"I have to run to keep her safe."
"Don't look for us,
or they will find us both."
"I love you,
always."
The room seemed to spin as the realization hit me.
Grace hadn't died in that hospital bed.
She had fled.
She had taken one twin to protect her from some unknown threat,
leaving the other with me.
But who were "they"?
And why did she think I couldn't protect our children?
"Where is this house,
Emma?"
I asked,
my voice thick with suppressed rage.
"The one by the woods?"
"It's far away,"
she said,
"where the trees are always dark."
"Aunt Karen took me on a bus for a long time."
"Then she left me at the park and said you would find me."
I realized then that "Aunt Karen" wasn't a relative.
She was a handler,
someone Grace had trusted to return Emma to me when the time was right.
Or perhaps,
someone who had waited until Grace was dead to get rid of the child.
I called my head of security,
Cassian.
"Find every bus route that arrived near Lincoln Park yesterday morning,"
I commanded.
"Check every camera,
every ticket sale."
"I want Karen found,
and I want her brought to me."
"Dead or alive,
I don't care."
Lily walked over and put her hand on Emma's,
the two girls looking like two halves of a whole.
"Don't worry,"
Lily said firmly.
"Daddy is the strongest man in the world."
"Nobody can hurt us now."
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I wished I shared her confidence,
but the locket in my hand felt like a ticking time bomb.
