Chapter 23 - MY TEXTEmily learned about my message months later.
I told her myself.
Not because prosecutors required it.
Because I could not keep it.
“I texted your phone after police found the basement.”
She looked at me.
“Why?”
“I thought maybe you had it.”
“Did I?”
“No.”
“Richard?”
“Probably. The phone went online near the storage property. Then you were moved.”
Silence.
My chest tightened.
“I might have caused that.”
Emily thought.
Then:
“You don’t know.”
“Ortiz says we can’t prove it.”
“So?”
“I was told not to contact anyone.”
“That was stupid.”
“Yes.”
She looked at me.
“You thought you could get me to answer.”
“Yes.”
“Then learn from it.”
I stared.
“That’s all?”
“What do you want me to do, Claire? Make you the second victim of my kidnapping?”
I cried.
She rolled her eyes.
“Please don’t turn this into a Hallmark moment.”
Still my sister.
The mistake remained mine.
May you like
Emily refused to let me use it as self-punishment.
That was different from absolution.
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