Chapter 4
I took Emily home with me.
Not Margaret’s house.
Mine.
The small farmhouse attached to my workshop where Sarah and I lived before family politics swallowed too many evenings.
Emily had not slept there since the crash.
She stood in the doorway like she was entering someone else’s memory.
“Can I move around?”
The question nearly broke me.
“Yes.”
“Anywhere?”
“Yes.”
She walked five steps.
Stopped.
Looked back.
“Even upstairs?”
“Yes.”
She stared at the stairs.
Then climbed them slowly.
No brace.
No chain.
Just one hand on the railing and me close enough to catch her without making her feel watched.
At the top she smiled.
Small victory.
Huge cost.
Later, while she slept, I went into the workshop.
Sawdust still coated the benches.
Sarah used to complain I carried half the shop into the house on my sleeves.
I opened every drawer.
Every cabinet.
Nothing.
Then I remembered Emily’s words.
Garage.
Not workshop.
The detached garage had been locked since the crash because Margaret said the smell upset Emily.
I had believed that too.
I opened it.
Sarah’s old car was gone.
Of course.
The wreck had been disposed of months earlier.
But her storage shelves remained.
One box was missing.
A clean rectangle in the dust showed exactly where it used to sit.
I knew who had access.
Margaret.
Then I heard footsteps.
Rafe Warren—my cousin and senior capo—entered behind me.
“I heard about Emily.”
I looked at him.
“You knew my mother was taking her to Pierce?”
His hesitation answered.
“Rafe.”
“She said you couldn’t handle more medical details after Sarah.”
I laughed.
Not because anything was funny.
Another gatekeeper.
Another person deciding what I could survive.
“What else did she tell you not to bring me?”
His face changed.
There.
“Say it.”
Rafe looked toward the empty shelf.
“Sarah came to the estate the day before the crash.”
I stared.
“She asked for you.”
“I was in Denver.”
“I know.”
“She said she found something inside Margaret’s private council.”
My jaw tightened.
“What?”
Rafe swallowed.
“She said your mother was using Emily to keep you tied to the Warren organization.”
That made no sense.
Emily had not been injured yet.
May you like
Then he finished.
“And Sarah said if you didn’t leave with them, she was going to take Emily somewhere Margaret couldn’t reach either of you.”
