Emma’s Daughter Came in the Rain
CHAPTER 2 - The Hospital Room
"Lock the doors! Call the—"
Clara's voice broke off as the black car's door opened across the street. The driver never fully stepped out. He only watched, calm and certain, before the hotel staff rushed between them.
The girl pressed closer to Clara's side.
"What is your name?" Clara asked.
"Maddie."
"Where are your parents, Maddie?"
"Only Mom now."
That answer hurt more than Clara expected.
She got Maddie into the car and told her driver to go to St. Agnes Hospital. On the way, the child kept staring at the music box in Clara's lap, as if it might vanish.
At the hospital, the night nurse looked tired and suspicious.
"Emma Reyes?" Clara asked.
The nurse hesitated. "She was moved out of her room an hour ago. A man signed papers."
"What man?"
"I didn't get his name. Tall. Black gloves."
Clara felt cold all over.
She pushed past the nurse and found Emma in a discharge bay, pale and fighting for breath. A heart monitor was still attached to her wrist. She looked older than Clara remembered, but the shape of her mouth was the same. The same eyes.
Emma looked up.
And went white.
"Mom?" she whispered.
Clara crossed the room in three steps. "They told me you died."
Emma closed her eyes. "I tried to come back. He wouldn't let me."
Maddie stood in the doorway, terrified. "He said if I told anyone, you'd disappear again."
Clara turned sharply. "Who is he?"
Emma opened her mouth, but the answer came from the hallway.
A man's voice.
"Mrs. Whitmore, please step away from my patient."
A man in a dark coat stood there with hospital papers in his hand and black gloves pulled tight over his fingers.
He smiled at Clara as if they were old friends.
And Emma whispered, "That's not the one I was afraid of."
