Chapter 3 - THE FIRST LIE EMMA HAD LEARNED TO KEEP SECRET
A child-welfare investigator named Marissa Greene arrived that evening.
She did not interrogate Emma.
She asked enough questions to determine immediate safety and arranged for further interviewing to be handled carefully.
Celeste left voluntarily after police informed her that remaining in the home would only escalate matters.
She went to a hotel.
Damian changed the garage code before midnight.
Lauren stayed.
Not because Damian wanted her there.
Because Emma asked her to.
At nine, Emma sat at the kitchen table in Damian’s oversized sweatshirt drinking warm chocolate milk.
Lauren gently asked about the dead mother comment.
Damian almost stopped her.
Then Emma volunteered the answer herself.
“Celeste says Mommy isn’t really dead like Daddy says.”
Damian felt the room tilt.
Lauren covered her mouth.
“How long has she been saying that?”
Emma looked at Damian nervously.
“Am I in trouble?”
“No.”
“Celeste said you’d be mad if I told.”
Damian crouched beside her.
“I will never be mad at you for telling me something that scares you.”
Emma studied his face.
Then she whispered:
“She said Mommy got away.”
“Got away from what?”
“From you.”
Damian closed his eyes.
Lauren stared at him.
There was old history between them.
History Damian had hoped Emma would not have to understand for years.
Allison had died after leaving their house during an argument.
Damian had not caused the crash.
But he had carried guilt about the last hour of his wife’s life ever since.
Celeste knew that.
Emma continued.
“Celeste said Mommy was hiding until it was safe.”
“Where?”
“She wouldn’t tell me.”
“What did she say was happening today?”
Emma rubbed the sleeve over her hand.
“She said Mommy finally found me.”
Lauren stood abruptly.
Damian looked up.
“What?”
Lauren walked to the counter and picked up her phone.
“Celeste asked me something weird last month.”
“What?”
“She wanted pictures of Allison.”
Damian’s stomach dropped.
“She said she was making something for Emma.”
“What kind of pictures?”
“Recent ones.”
Damian stared at her.
“Allison doesn’t have recent pictures.”
“I know.”
Lauren swallowed.
“That’s why I thought it was strange.”
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For the first time, Damian understood that Celeste had not merely told Emma a cruel lie.
She had been building a believable version of that lie piece by piece.
