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“He sold her?”

Knowing he was thinking the very worst, she squeezed his hand tight. “Sean, my love. Your angel had an angel looking out for her. An older couple gave Joe money and took in Emma. They were Walter and Faye Copeland. They once ran a legitimate business of helping unwed mothers place their babies with adoption agencies. They had some legal issues, unrelated to any of that, and lost their license. But they still tried to help when they could.

“They happened upon Joe and heard about him trying to sell Emma. They weren’t interested in doing anything other than saving that child from unspeakable horror. So they used their own money to pay Joe, then turned Emma over to an adoption agency that, for whatever reason, looked the other way at how Emma came to them. All the papers were filed and processed through legal channels. She was legitimately adopted.”

“Emma is alive?” Sean whispered. “You are saying that my baby girl is alive?”

She didn’t reply to that, not yet. “Emma was adopted by a young couple out of Houston—Amanda and Craig Marston. They knew nothing about Emma’s background other than what the agency had told them, which was that Emma’s mother had died, and her father was unknown.”

Realizing her throat was bone-dry, she took a long swallow of her lemonade and continued, “I don’t know the specifics of why they were looking to adopt. They have four children now. Emma is their oldest.”

When he didn’t respond to that, she went on, “Amanda is an architect at a large firm in downtown Houston. Craig is a doctor, a trauma surgeon.”

With an explosion of energy, Sean surged to his feet and began to pace the narrow aisle of the plane.

Unable to do anything else, she quickly explained the rest of the deceit. “Joe came back to Corley only a few weeks after selling Emma. The five thousand dollars the Copelands had given him was long gone. He wanted back in with his family. Russell questioned him. When he learned what his son had done, he was infuriated. Not because of what Joe had done with the child, but because he was afraid of the questions that might be asked. Everyone in town knew about Bridget and Emma. His father couldn’t risk the bad publicity. So, like he often did, he threw his money at the problem. He had Bridget’s casket returned to Corley and had another one made for Emma. They had a huge funeral. Everyone believed mother and daughter were both killed in the accident. No one had reason to question what they’d been told.

“Russell paid for the fake accident report, making it look like Emma was killed in the wreck with Bridget. Photographs of another child, in another accident, were used to prove their claim.”

“Where is Joe now?” Sean ground out.

“In prison. His father, to his credit, finally washed his hands of him. Eight years ago, Joe was arrested for armed robbery of a convenience store in Portland. He’s serving a twenty-year sentence at Columbia River Correctional Institution. I didn’t go see him. I didn’t see the need.”

He was silent after that, continuing to pace. She knew his mind was a flurry of activity. She had thrown a lot at him that he needed to digest. She had known all of this for over a week now and still had problems processing the deceit and manipulations that had occurred.

Sean abruptly dropped into the seat again. His eyes were now glowing. Though there was still anger and outrage, she saw something else, too. A new light, a new purpose had now appeared. “Tell me about Emma,” he said thickly.

“She doesn’t have a huge online presence. I managed to piece together some intel from some of her friends from her school.” Serena smiled briefly and added, “Emma has a lot of friends. From what I’ve been able to put together, she is a super smart young lady who wants to be an astronaut. She’s done a couple of summer internships at the Johnson Space Center and already has a job offer from them once she graduates from high school.

“She’s planning to get her degree in engineering and then work for the space center. She’s also a great athlete and plays on the high school softball team.”

She reached out and touched his hand. “That’s where we’re going tonight. She’s playing in a tournament in Houston.”

“You’re telling me that we are going to see Emma tonight?”

“Yes, Sean,” Serena said softly. “We are.”

* * *

His mind whirled. Thoughts and emotions slammed into him from every direction. He could not get his head wrapped around all the things Serena had told him. His Emma was alive? She hadn’t died in the accident. The photos and death certificate were fake. Joe Stewart had sold her like she was a used car. There was fury in him because of that, but it was tempered by the knowledge that, at least for Emma, the situation seemed to have turned out well. She’d had a family this entire time, an apparently good family with parents and siblings who loved her. She sounded not only well adjusted but happy. Like she’d had a good life—just as every child had a right to experience.

A noise brought him back to the present. Serena was fidgeting beside him, her expression a mixture of concern and nervousness. She had been worried to tell him, unsure how he would react to the news. But how could he react with anything other than utter joy? His daughter—his baby girl—was still alive. This was a miracle, a dream he had never even dared to entertain.

“I have photographs,” she said.

“Of Emma?”

“Yes.” She grabbed her laptop from the tote beside her, opened it, and clicked onto an app. Looked like maybe Facebook.

“This is Amanda Marston’s account. She doesn’t post a lot, but she does have a few photos of her kids.”

A photo appeared of a young girl with long, golden-blonde hair, sky-blue eyes, and a dimple on her right cheek. Sean remembered that dimple as if he’d seen it yesterday. This girl was smiling, holding some kind of trophy. She looked like she was above-average height—maybe five nine or so—slender, and looked healthy.

She had Bridget’s nose and hair color. Other than those two features, she didn’t look like anyone else he knew. His heart stuttered as he came to the conclusion he guessed he’d always known.

“Even though she’s not Joe’s, she’s not mine either, is she?”

“No, Sean. She’s not.” Serena sighed and added, “And I honestly don’t know if Bridget even knew who Emma’s father was. But the DNA test you took was legitimate.”