Chapter 2 - THE GIRL THEY DECLARED DEAD
The Ashfords did not report Emily missing.
That was the first thing she learned ten years later.
They reported her dead.
Mr. Alvarez had taken her that night to a storage cottage two miles beyond the estate boundary.
He cleaned mud from her mouth.
Wrapped her in blankets.
Then drove her to his sister’s farmhouse before dawn.
Emily had wanted police.
Mr. Alvarez stopped her.
“Not yet.”
She screamed at him for that.
“You saw what they did!”
“Yes.”
“Then why are we hiding?”
“Because your father already owns the first version of the story.”
Emily did not understand.
By morning, she did.
Local news reported that nineteen-year-old Emily Ashford had died in a flash flood after leaving home during the storm.
Her car had supposedly been found near a washed-out county bridge.
A jacket belonging to her was recovered downstream.
No body.
Richard appeared on television beside Victoria.
He cried.
Actually cried.
“Our daughter was troubled,” he said.
Emily watched from a farmhouse television with mud still beneath her fingernails.
Victoria held Richard’s arm.
Marcus stood behind them.
The grieving brother.
Mr. Alvarez turned the television off.
Emily whispered:
“They killed me twice.”
May you like
First in the grave.
Then on paper.
