Three days later I’m sitting across from Lyla at the hospital, where she’s finally getting the treatment she really needs.
“How did you know?” she asks. “I felt from the very beginning you didn’t believe me.”
“It wasn’t that I didn’t believe you,” I say. “And I didn’t know for sure. But there was something that was tugging at me.”
“How?”
“There’s something you should know about me.”
I tell her the story of my father and Jonah, and everything I went through with them.
“I guess that makes me the evil twin,” she says sadly.
I shake my head. “No. I don’t think there has to be a good or a bad.”
“It sounds ridiculous, but I miss Ashley. I never knew her—not after birth, anyway—but I feel as though a part of me is missing. I wish I could have known her.”
“That doesn’t sound silly at all,” I say. “You two have a special connection. And I might not be able to tell you much, but I know someone who can. Give me just a second.”
I leave the room and come back a few seconds later with John.
“Hi, Lyla,” he says, tears in his voice.
We sit down together and start the process of building a relationship he never got to have with the stepdaughter he never knew existed. He wants to be her father, to give her the love she never had. It will take time. I know that. But they need each other now.
“How is…”
“Your grandmother?” John asks. “It’s okay. You can say that.”
“How is she?” Lyla asks.
“Better. She’s awake. She’s healing well. I’ve told her everything and she can’t wait to meet you. She says she has missed you your whole life. She didn’t know where you were, but she said she never believed in her heart that you were really dead.”
Lyla hangs her head and I see a tear drop onto the table in front of her.
“I can’t wait to spend more time with her. I want to help take care of her.”
Suddenly, a light explodes in my brain.
“Excuse me,” I say. “You two keep talking.”
I get to my feet and start out of the room.
“Are you okay?” John asks.
I nod but don’t answer as I run out of the room. I wrench my phone out of my pocket and call Sam.
“The grandmothers,” I say.
“What?” he asks.
“The girls working on Windsor Island, Gabriel, the member of The Order who was helping Dad. Every single one of them either used the excuse, or had the excuse used for them that they were going to take care of their sick grandmothers right before disappearing, being used, or dying. That’s the connection.”
“What are you saying?” he asks.
My mind is spinning at lightning-speed.
“All of them link back to the Dragon.”
Author’s Note
Dear reader,
I hope you're enjoying the ride with Emma so far and loved The Girl and the Unlucky 13.
Be sure to checkout the next book as I'll be wrapping up season two of Emma and many of your questions will be answered!
Thank you for continuing to go on great Emma adventures with me.
Please, leave me a review if you can spare a moment of your time.
My promise to you is to always do my best to bring you thrilling adventures.
I hope I have fulfilled that. I look forward to you reading my next novel!
Yours,
A.J. Rivers
P.S. If for some reason you didn't like this book or found typos or other errors, please let me know personally. I do my best to read and respond to every email at [email protected]
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Also by A.J. RIVERS
Emma Griffin FBI Mysteries
Season One
Book One - The Girl in Cabin 13*
Book Two - The Girl Who Vanished*
Book Three - The Girl in the Manor*
Book Four - The Girl Next Door*
Book Five - The Girl and the Deadly Express*
Book Six - The Girl and the Hunt*
Book Seven - The Girl and the Deadly End*
Season Two
Book Eight - The Girl in Dangerous Waters*
Book Nine - The Girl and Secret Society
Book Ten - The Girl and the Field of Bones
Book Eleven - The Girl and the Black Christmas
Book Twelve - The Girl and the Cursed Lake
Other Standalone Novels
Gone Woman
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