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“Not about Chris.”
“What, then?”
“I heard from Cal this morning. He’s bringing his father to the wedding.”
Frank Whittier. Instinctively, Lucy got excited. A wedding would be a p
erfect opportunity to observe the only other suspect in the case, to eavesdrop, to see others’ reactions to him, to watch him around the mother of the child he possibly stole. She had to call Ramsey.
And then she thought about the wedding. About Emma. And was ashamed of herself.
“Does your mother know?” she asked softly. Rose and Frank had been engaged until Claire went missing, and after the police started looking at Frank, Rose blamed Frank. They’d broken up and neither of them had ever dated again.
“Apparently, though I haven’t heard that from her yet. Cal just called. And I…I don’t know. I called you.”
Lucy smiled. “I’m glad you did.” Glad to know that Emma held her in such high esteem. Because Emma filled an empty place inside of her, too. Allie’s place? Or the place she imagined an older sister would have filled? “You said your mom knew but you didn’t? How did she find out? What did Cal say?”
“Mom and Frank have talked and she agreed that it would be appropriate for him to be at my wedding as long as it was okay with me.”
“Is it?”
“I honestly don’t know.” Emma’s tone dropped. “I can remember a time before Claire was gone—I was about four so it must not have been long before that—I was playing Cinderella with my plastic high-heeled shoes and elasticized lace skirt. Frank came in from work just as I was making Cal stand at one end of the living room while I did my model walk toward him. Cal told Frank that I was making him be my prince. And Frank said that a girl as pretty as I was couldn’t even think about getting married without a man to walk her down the aisle. He set his briefcase down and offered me his arm and it was one of the happiest moments of my life. Not because I was getting married, but because I somehow sensed that I finally had a full family. I didn’t have to be afraid anymore like I had been after Claire was born and our biological father left us.”
Lucy couldn’t connect the picture Emma painted with the man she suspected of ripping that family irrevocably apart. And she couldn’t encourage Emma to invite the man to her wedding, knowing that he might very well turn out to be the cause of all of her heartbreak.
“Do you want him to give you away?”
“No! Of course not. I’m not walking down any aisle and no one is giving me away. Good Lord, Chris and I have been doing all we can to make certain that Mom knows that I’m not leaving her—she’s just gaining a larger family.”
The thought of dealing with Sandy were Lucy to ever get married gave Lucy a headache. She didn’t know how Emma was holding up so well.
“I just… I loved Frank. And then spent so many years hating him. It’s all mixed up, you know?”
Lucy thought about her trek through the woods the night before. “Yeah, I do. And that’s the time you have to listen to your heart, Emma. That’s all I know. Whether it’s right or wrong, it’s all you’ve got. And you’ll always have it. If you act contrary to what your insides are telling you, you’ll live to regret it.”
So she’d dug in the dark until her fingers were blistered and bleeding.
“My heart tells me to tell Cal he can bring his father.”
“Then I guess that’s what you need to do.”
For whatever reason.
“I think I knew that all along.”
“I’m sure you did.”
Lucy watched a barge make its way slowly up the river. In days past, those barges were the center of commerce in the Midwest. Times had changed, but they still floated. Still delivered.
“How are you doing?” Emma’s question brought her focus back.
“There’ve been some developments on my sister’s case.” She said what she could, which wasn’t much due to the fact that they were dealing with an ongoing investigation. “We made an arrest a few weeks ago.” That was really saying too much. Aching, alone by the river, Lucy wished she could tell Emma about Wakerby. Emma would understand Lucy’s craziness the night before.
“Does your mother know about the arrest?”
“Yes.”
“And?”
