Page 40 of Ten Years Later
She kept Emily Two all to herself. She got groceries delivered. When they went outside, Dana chose secluded spots for the two of them to play.
Dana kept an eye on the broadcast feeds in Florida. Eventually, news of the missing girl, Vivian Young, died out.
Fall arrived. Then winter.
Emily Two cried a lot. She misbehaved. She made messes. But Dana never once questioned her decision. With enough love and time, Emily Two would be just like Emily One.
Spring came.
One morning while making them oatmeal, Dana realized quite suddenly that some time had gone by since Emily Two demanded that she be called Vivian.
By the start of summer, Emily TwobecameEmily One. Dana breathed.
Then one afternoon in August, Dana took a shower. She smelled smoke. Wet and in a towel, she raced out of thebathroom to find her apartment on fire. She didn’t have time to assess the situation.
“Emily!” she screamed.
She looked in the closets. She searched under the beds.
“Emily!” she wheezed.
Smoke billowed. She coughed. She used her wet towel to cover her face. She crawled across the floor, growing hotter with each second. Her hands burned when she opened the lower kitchen cabinets, searching for Emily.
Emily!
Fire licked across Dana’s face. She cried out. She fell to the linoleum floor. It bubbled beneath her. Dana’s breath rasped hotly in. Her throat swelled.
The door burst open. Firemen rushed in.
But Dana had already breathed her last breath.
27 /CURRENT DAY
Mia should have calledthe cops the minute Zane Young walked into their lives.
Why hadn’t she?
Because they were moving and she didn’t want to upset Emily any more than necessary. Honestly, Mia didn’t think things would escalate.
But they had.
The cops came to her house. Mia gave them everything she knew. They advised her to stay home in case her daughter returned. Mia had no other choice but to wait and to hope.
Hours ticked by.
She questioned the way she handled things. Why did she have to be so imposing on Emily? Why didn’t she deal with matters more calmly?
A cop phoned to say they’d gone to Zane Young’s home, but Emily wasn’t there. The cop assured her they would continue looking. If Emily wasn’t with Zane, then where was she?
Mia remembered the call that changed her life, some nine years ago now.
“Yes, hello this is the Department of Children and Family Services in King County.”
Mia searched her brain. She’d never heard of King County.
“That’s in Washington State,” the woman on the other end clarified.
“Oh, how can I help you?”
