Page 35 of Ten Years Later
“You’re lying.”
“Oh yeah? Prove it.”
Mia jabbed a finger down the hall. “Go to your room.”
“Fine. I will.” Emily stomped off.
Mia spent hours seething. Emily stayed in her room.
When dinner rolled around, Mia made them both sandwiches. Her fury had not subsided. If anything it festered and grew. She opened Emily’s door to find her curled on her bed.
Mia put the sandwich on her desk. “Food if you’re hungry.”
She left and came back with boxes. “You need to start packing. We are leaving. You’re fourteen years old. Box your own stuff.”
Mia closed the door.
The next few hours ticked by. Mia worked on taping and labeling boxes. She secured international shipping for their belongings. She put her house on the market. She found an apartment in London. She’d already picked out and contacted a boarding school. She worked on the paperwork they sent.
At ten, Mia checked on her daughter one last time.
But Emily was gone.
23 /CURRENT DAY
Keaton wasin the middle of brushing his teeth when a knock sounded at the front door. He checked the time. Who in the hell would be here at eleven in the evening?
He opened the door to find Emily standing there still dressed in her school uniform with an overstuffed crossbody bag.
“I ran away,” she said.
Keaton glanced past her into the night. Down the street, the cab turned from the neighborhood. A quick look up and down his road showed the neighbors in for the evening. He stepped aside, letting her in.
“I took a cab so that I could pay cash. I also turned my phone off so that Mia can’t track me.” Emily looked close to tears.
Keaton opened his arms and she stepped into them. It was the first time he’d hugged his daughter in ten years. She held tight, her head to his chest. He held just as tight, his pulse racing with love. She smelled like coconut and the ocean, just like she smelled that day so many years ago.
“I googled Vivian Young. Everything I read says she drowned.”
“No, they never found her body.”
Emily stepped from their embrace. “I get it now.”
“Get what?”
“Pretending you’re Zane. Being my friend. The questions you asked me about Mia adopting me. You think I’m Vivian, don’t you?”
“I do, yes.”
“Wow.”
“What do you think about that?”
“I think I like that idea.”
They shared a smile.
Taking her bag off, she carried it as she followed him through the living room and into the kitchen.
