Her mouth twisted, and she glanced away. “No. I wanted to tell you first. You were the easiest to approach.” She reached for my hand, and I recoiled from her without thinking. “You’ve been so nice to me.”
I reached forward, pulling her into a hug. I didn’t know how to feel, how to react. Was this really my daughter standing in front of me? The daughter I’d given up? The daughter I never thought I’d see again when I placed her into the arms of strangers while I sat crying alone in a hospital bed? I rubbed her back, releasing a sob. “I can’t believe it’s you.”
Emily started to cry, too, and I felt her shoulders shaking in my arms. “I’ve dreamed about you my whole life. I want to know so much.”
I pulled back. In the distance, a door shut, a seagull cawed overhead, and the ocean waves continued to roar. Nothing else mattered. I couldn’t focus on anything except my own panic. This would change everything. “I want to tell you everything,” I swore, wiping my eyes. “And I promise I will. But can you do me one favor?”
She nodded, swiping a finger across both her cheeks as she laughed through her tears. “Anything.”
“Can you wait until we get back home before you mention this to anyone? I want to break the news to Brad gently. He’s…he’s not good with surprises.”
“Imagine that, neither am I. It runs in the family, I guess,” she said, a bright smile on her face. She pulled me into another hug, and I gave in, waiting for a response.
“So, we’ll just talk to him once we’re back home, okay?”
She nodded, her chin bumping my shoulder. “I just can’t believe it’s you.”
I couldn’t believe it was her, either. I couldn’t believe everything was going to fall apart. “Emily, I need you to tell me you understand.” I pulled away from her, gripping her shoulders. “I need you to promise me you won’t tell anyone anything. You have to keep pretending nothing’s changed between us until I can tell Brad when we get back home.”
Her glowing expression began to fade, and she nodded, her chin quivering. “I understand.”
“No one can know until I’m ready to deal with this.” I shook my head, anger swelling in my belly at being forced to face the truth of what I’d done.
“I’m sorry, Laura—”
“You don’t need to apologize. I understand why you did what you did, but you need to realize I had my reasons, and this wasn’t planned. I have to process this… It’s a lot, Emily. And what about Andy? What are you going to tell him?”
“Wh-what about him?” She blinked.
“This is going to break his heart. He’s in love with you, don’t you see that? To find out you’ve used him to get to us? How do you think he’s going to react to that?”
“I guess I didn’t think—”
“Well, you need to,” I said. I wasn’t being fair to her, I knew. But my privacy had been violated. And I felt trapped here on the island with no choice but to face it. It was unfair. I’d made the decision. I hadn’t wanted to know Emily, but she hadn’t respected that. “You need to think things through. What you do matters. Your choices hurt people.” I sighed. “I’m sorry for being so harsh, but you have to think…” I trailed off. “I need to go back inside. I can’t do this right now.”
“Laura, wait—”
“Please just…please give me some time, okay?” I looked back at her as I pulled the door open. “It’s really good to meet you, and I’m glad you had a good life, but I need a minute.” I walked through the door, my heart breaking at what I’d said. It wasn’t fair. Not to her. Not to me.
My words echoed in my head. What you do matters. Your choices hurt people. Was I talking to Emily? Or myself?
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Nick
PRESENT DAY
As she told the story, the room was eerily quiet. When she finished, I shook my head. “So…when you came to me because you said Emily was dangerous? That you thought she knew secrets about us…”
She nodded. “It was because I already knew that she did, but I had no idea how to tell you.”
“So…” I looked to Andy, who was watching me closely, then back to Laura. I’d been right all along. How was Andy okay with this? “Now you’re hiding from the police? You can’t plan to stay here, what, forever?”
“What? No, I’m not hiding from the police—”
“That’s what you’re saying, isn’t it? You killed Emily because of what she knew?” I looked at Andy again, trying to read the expression on his face. “Because she was threatening to tell Brad about the baby?”
Laura shook her head, swiping a hand across the back of her neck and wiping the sweat on her shorts. “No. You have it all wrong. I didn’t kill Emily. I didn’t know she was dead until we all woke up. I would’ve never… She was our daughter, Nick.” She put her hands over her face, and I wanted to comfort her, but I couldn’t move. I couldn’t do anything but watch. “She was our daughter, and she was going to tell Brad. She thought Brad was her father. I was so scared. I didn’t know what to do, but I would’ve never done that.”
“Had you told him about…” I trailed off, wondering what exactly Andy knew.
“No,” she said quickly. “No. Everything we did that summer, our relationship, the baby, the adoption… I put it all behind me just like I said I would. Brad was gone to Haiti for two years, and when he came home, I just moved on from what we’d gone through. We both agreed to never talk about it again…”
She was right. We had agreed, but
