Chapter 8 - The First Note
Emily kept the first note inside a book.
The Velveteen Rabbit.
Sarah used to read it to her.
I found the paper folded between two pages.
Rebecca’s handwriting again.
Your daddy needs a new family now.
Good girls help grown-ups move forward.
I felt physically ill.
“When did she give you this?”
“A long time ago.”
“How long?”
Emily shrugged.
“Before Christmas.”
Seven months.
Rebecca had been planting these ideas for seven months.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Emily looked ashamed.
“She said you would be sad.”
My heart broke.
“She said talking about Mommy makes you sad.”
I closed my eyes.
Rebecca knew Sarah was the easiest way to silence Emily.
My daughter had watched me grieve.
She knew there were days I disappeared into the garage because Sarah’s memory hurt too much.
Rebecca used that love against her.
“What else did she say?”
Emily stared at her hands.
“That big girls don’t need their daddy every day.”
“That when you married her, you would have babies that didn’t remember Mommy.”
I struggled to stay calm.
“Anything else?”
“She said the lake house needed a family that wasn’t sad.”
There it was again.
The property.
Even conversations with my daughter led back to assets.
I called Allison.
She told me to photograph the note and preserve the original.
Then she asked whether Emily had ever been alone with Rebecca while signing anything.
I froze.
“Why?”
“Because we found a document.”
My stomach dropped.
“What document?”
An acknowledgment form from Hawthorne Ridge Academy.
Child signature:
Emily Hayes.
The signature was a messy version of Emily’s name.
My seven-year-old could write her name.
But I had never seen her sign anything official.
I asked her.
“Did Rebecca make you write your name on papers?”
Emily’s face changed.
“One time.”
“When?”
“At her office.”
“What did she tell you?”
“That it was for wedding flowers.”
My hands went numb.
Rebecca had obtained my daughter’s signature under false pretenses.
The academy application now contained forged consent from me and misleading consent from Emily.
Allison immediately contacted authorities.
Until that moment, I had been dealing mainly through lawyers.
May you like
Now a detective became involved.
And once Detective Maria Cole started asking questions, Rebecca’s carefully arranged plan began falling apart much faster than any of us expected.
