Chapter 15 - THE SISTER GRACE NEVER NAMED
Emily Hart was thirty-two and living in Oregon.
Rachel found her in two hours.
Convincing her to speak took longer.
When she finally answered my call, she said one sentence.
“Caroline found you, didn’t she?”
My throat tightened.
“You knew?”
“I knew she would try eventually.”
“Why did Grace never tell me about you?”
Emily was silent for a long time.
Then she said, “Because I was an addict.”
The word landed softly.
“I stole from our parents. Lied to Grace. Disappeared for years.”
She had been sober for seven years now.
Grace had quietly reconnected with her before Sophie was born.
But she never told me because Emily asked her not to.
“I didn’t want to become another problem in her marriage.”
“Caroline knew?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“She followed Grace once.”
Of course.
Emily said Caroline contacted her after Grace died.
Offered money.
A plane ticket.
A place in Sophie’s life.
All Emily had to do was tell a court Grace had been worried about my mental health.
“Were you going to?”
“No.”
“What did you do?”
“I told her to go to hell.”
For the first time all week, I almost smiled.
Then Emily’s voice changed.
“She offered me fifty thousand dollars.”
My smile disappeared.
“For one statement?”
“Yes.”
“Do you have proof?”
“I kept the email.”
She forwarded it.
Caroline had written:
Sophie needs maternal family around her. Michael will replace Grace and erase all of us.
There it was again.
Erase.
Competition.
Sides.
Emily had replied:
Grace never asked anyone to win against her. Stop using her name.
I closed my eyes.
“Why didn’t you contact me?”
“Shame.”
“You were sober.”
“Shame doesn’t care.”
Emily agreed to testify if needed.
Before hanging up, she asked:
“Does Sophie know about me?”
“No.”
“Maybe someday.”
“Maybe.”
Then she said one more thing.
“Grace left something with me.”
“What?”
“A video for Sophie.”
My chest tightened.
“When?”
“Three weeks before she died.”
“What does it say?”
May you like
Emily exhaled.
“It says exactly what Caroline has spent six years trying to make that child forget.”
