Chapter 5 - THE NIGHT OF THE FIRE
Victoria had spent thirty years refusing to remember the guesthouse fire. Under pressure, memory returned in fragments.
Her younger sister’s name had been Emily.
Emily was five, dark-haired, and fearless around strangers. William Hale treated her differently, though Victoria never understood why. He bought Victoria riding lessons and gave Emily books from secondhand shops. Rebecca corrected anyone who called the girls twins even though their birthdays were only fourteen months apart.
On the night of the fire, Victoria had heard her parents arguing.
“You promised no one would learn she isn’t his,” William said.
Rebecca answered, “She is my daughter. That should have been enough.”
Later, Emily entered Victoria’s room carrying two ribbons. She tied one into Victoria’s hair and kept the other.
“Mom says matching things help people find each other,” Emily whispered.
Smoke filled the hallway before dawn.
Victoria escaped through her window. She saw William carry a small covered body from the guesthouse. Rebecca screamed Emily’s name once—then never again.
Grant obtained the coroner’s original notes. The unidentified child was estimated to be eight or nine, not five. She had a healed fracture in her left arm. Emily had never broken a bone.
The dead child was not Emily.
“Who was she?” Victoria asked.
“A child whose identity your parents had reason to erase.”
Grant also found a taxi receipt from the estate to Grand Central Station two hours after the fire. The passenger used Rebecca’s private account.
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Attached was a handwritten destination:
St. Agnes Home for Girls—deliver E.H. alive.
