Chapter 5 - EMMA’S SECRET
That night, Matteo found Emma awake in the guest room.
She sat beneath the blankets, hugging a stuffed rabbit.
“Can’t sleep?” he asked.
She shook her head.
He sat beside her.
After several minutes, she whispered, “I saw her.”
“Who?”
“Mrs. Evelyn.”
“When?”
“Before Mama got sick.”
Matteo listened carefully.
“She came into Mama’s room when Mama was sleeping. She put something in her tea.”
His expression changed.
“Did your mother see her?”
Emma shook her head.
“I did.”
“Why didn’t you tell anyone?”
The child stared at her rabbit.
“Mrs. Evelyn said Mama would disappear if I told.”
Matteo’s jaw clenched.
“She threatened you?”
Emma nodded.
Then she reached beneath her pillow and pulled out a tiny object.
A brass key.
“I took it.”
Matteo recognized it immediately.
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It belonged to the locked cabinet in Evelyn’s office.
Emma had unknowingly given him the first real weapon against the woman who had terrorized her family.
