Chapter 9 - WHERE EMILY WENT
Emily was alive.
Mara found her through hospital intake records in rural Pennsylvania.
She had collapsed outside a church two days after leaving Luca.
Why leave him?
Because Owen Grant had found them.
Emily believed he would follow her.
So she deliberately separated.
Told Luca to stay near the bakery district where she had previously shown him James’s photograph.
She expected to return in hours.
Instead, she was struck by a car while crossing a highway access road.
No deliberate attack.
No dramatic conspiracy.
A driver stopped.
Called 911.
Emily had no ID.
She suffered a head injury and memory impairment.
For weeks she gave only fragments:
Luca.
James.
Red book.
The hospital listed her under an unknown-patient identifier before social workers connected one fragment to a missing-person database.
James reached her room eleven days after Luca entered the bakery.
He stopped in the doorway.
Emily looked older.
So did he.
For several seconds, neither spoke.
Then she whispered:
“You kept the picture.”
James broke.
May you like
He crossed the room and took her hand.
“I kept everything.”
