Chapter 3 - Emily’s Promise
Emily woke at 2:17 in the morning because she heard glass break.
For a few seconds, she didn't understand what had happened.
The house was dark.
Noah slept in the crib beside Sarah's bed across the hallway.
Wind pushed against the walls.
Then another sound came from downstairs.
A drawer opening.
Emily sat upright.
"Mom?"
No answer.
She slipped from bed.
Bare feet touched the cold floor.
She opened her bedroom door.
Sarah was already standing in the hallway.
One finger pressed against her lips.
Emily froze.
Sarah moved toward her.
"Take Noah," she whispered.
"What's happening?"
"Someone's downstairs."
Emily's heartbeat exploded.
Sarah handed her the baby.
"Go into my closet."
"What about you?"
"Emily."
"No."
"Listen to me."
Sarah gripped her shoulders.
"Take your brother. Lock the bedroom door. Stay quiet."
"You can't go downstairs."
"I need my phone."
Emily shook her head.
Sarah looked terrified but controlled.
"I'll be right back."
She moved downstairs.
Emily carried Noah into the bedroom.
Instead of the closet, she went to the nightstand.
Mom's old phone wasn't there.
Emily's own phone was a cheap prepaid device with almost no service, but emergency calls still worked.
She grabbed it.
Then remembered something.
The wrong number.
She had deleted Lorenzo's messages from Mom's phone after Sarah told her never to contact him.
But Emily remembered his number.
Not consciously.
Not until her fingers started typing.
She stopped.
Mom had made her promise.
Don't answer him.
Don't contact him.
But somebody was downstairs.
Emily heard a man's voice.
Then her mother.
"There's nothing here."
Emily's blood went cold.
She dialed emergency services first.
Whispered the address.
Said someone had broken in.
Then she ended the call.
Noah stirred.
"Shh."
Another crash sounded downstairs.
Emily looked at the phone.
She broke her promise.
She texted Lorenzo.
Someone is in our house.
Across the city, Lorenzo was awake.
He rarely slept before three.
The message appeared while he was reading an old report concerning Michael Carter's death.
The moment he saw Emily's name, he stood.
He called her.
Emily answered without speaking.
"Emily?"
She whispered, "Someone broke in."
"Did you call the police?"
"Yes."
"Where are you?"
"Mom's room."
"Is Noah with you?"
"Yes."
"Lock the door."
"I did."
"Stay there."
"What about Mom?"
Lorenzo heard fear crack her voice.
"Where is she?"
"Downstairs."
Lorenzo grabbed his coat.
"Emily, listen carefully. Police are coming. Do not go downstairs."
There were things Lorenzo could have told her to do.
Things from his own world.
He refused.
She was twelve.
She needed police officers, not lessons in surviving violent men.
"I'm coming," he said.
Emily swallowed.
"Mom told me not to call you."
"Your mother can be angry at both of us later."
A noise sounded outside Emily's room.
She stopped breathing.
"Lorenzo."
"I heard it."
Footsteps.
Someone was coming upstairs.
Emily backed toward the closet.
Noah began crying.
"No, no, no."
"Emily, stay on the phone."
The doorknob moved.
She nearly screamed.
Then Sarah's voice came through the door.
"Emily!"
Emily unlocked it.
Sarah rushed inside and closed the door.
"Mom!"
"I'm okay."
"What happened?"
"Who are you talking to?"
Emily couldn't lie.
"Lorenzo."
Sarah stared at the phone.
"You called him?"
"Someone broke in!"
Sarah's anger collapsed beneath fear.
She took the phone.
"Lorenzo?"
"Police are four minutes away."
"How do you know?"
"I called again."
Sarah closed her eyes.
"There's a man downstairs."
"Did he hurt you?"
"No."
"What did he want?"
"He kept asking where it was."
Lorenzo became silent.
"Where what was?"
Sarah looked toward the closet.
"I don't know."
"Sarah."
"I said I don't know."
A siren sounded faintly outside.
The intruder heard it too.
Footsteps rushed through the house.
A back door slammed.
Sarah pulled Emily close.
Minutes later, police officers filled the house.
The intruder was gone.
Nothing valuable appeared to have been stolen.
The television remained.
The small jar where Sarah kept emergency cash remained.
Even the groceries remained.
But Sarah's bedroom had been searched.
So had the kitchen drawers.
One detective frowned.
"Doesn't look like a normal burglary."
Sarah said nothing.
Then headlights washed across the front windows.
Emily knew before she looked.
A black car stopped outside.
Lorenzo emerged.
Sarah immediately walked onto the porch.
"You shouldn't be here."
He looked past her toward the broken window.
"Apparently someone disagrees."
"Lorenzo."
"What were they looking for?"
"I don't know."
"You told me they kept asking where 'it' was."
Sarah looked back into the house.
Emily stood behind the detective, listening.
Sarah lowered her voice.
"There is nothing."
"Then why did somebody break into a poor family's house and ignore everything worth stealing?"
Sarah's expression hardened.
"Go home."
"No."
"It isn't your problem."
"It became my problem eleven years ago."
"Michael wanted you away from us."
"You keep saying that."
"Because it's true."
"Then show me."
Sarah froze.
Lorenzo continued.
"You have something from him."
Her face changed.
That was enough.
Lorenzo looked toward the house.
"Sarah."
She stepped between him and the door.
"You are not coming inside."
"I don't need to."
"Good."
"I just needed to know I was right."
Sarah's eyes flashed.
"You think because everyone is afraid of you, you can stand on my porch and interrogate me?"
"No."
"Then leave."
Lorenzo lowered his voice.
"I think somebody just entered your home looking for something connected to a dead man. And I think you know exactly what that something is."
Sarah's composure cracked.
Emily couldn't hear every word.
But she heard her father's name again.
Michael.
Always Michael.
A dead man who seemed to be becoming more alive with every hour.
Sarah looked toward the police officers.
Then toward Lorenzo.
Finally she whispered, "Tomorrow."
"What?"
"Come back tomorrow morning."
Lorenzo studied her.
"Alone."
He nodded.
Sarah turned.
Then Lorenzo said, "Sarah."
She stopped.
"I didn't know."
"About what?"
"Any of this."
Sarah's shoulders lowered.
For the first time, she seemed to believe him.
"You should have," she said softly.
Then she went inside.
Lorenzo stood on the porch for several moments.
Emily approached him from inside but didn't cross the doorway.
"I'm sorry I broke my promise."
Lorenzo looked at her.
"What promise?"
"Mom made me promise not to contact you."
He glanced toward Sarah.
"Some promises are worth breaking."
Sarah heard him.
"Lorenzo."
He almost smiled.
"I'm leaving."
Before he went, Emily asked, "Did you really know my dad?"
Lorenzo stopped.
"Yes."
"Was he bad?"
The question surprised him.
"No."
"Mom says he made mistakes."
"So have I."
"That's not an answer."
He looked at her and recognized Michael immediately in the stubbornness of her eyes.
"Your father was one of the bravest men I knew."
Emily absorbed that.
"Did he love us?"
Lorenzo's expression softened.
"More than anything."
Sarah suddenly turned away.
Lorenzo saw her crying.
And that told him the truth he had been missing.
Whatever Michael Carter had done eleven years ago, he hadn't abandoned his family.
He had been trying to save them.
The following morning, Lorenzo returned alone.
Sarah placed the sealed envelope on the kitchen table.
He recognized Michael's handwriting immediately.
His name was written across the front.
Lorenzo sat.
Sarah remained standing.
"He gave me this three days before he died."
"Why didn't you deliver it?"
"He told me not to."
Lorenzo looked up.
Sarah continued.
"He said I should give it to you only under one condition."
"What condition?"
"If you ever found us without looking."
Lorenzo stared.
"That doesn't make sense."
"It didn't to me either."
Sarah nodded toward the envelope.
"Maybe it will now."
Lorenzo broke the seal.
Inside was a handwritten letter.
The first line erased eleven years of certainty.
Lorenzo, if you're reading this, somebody inside your own family has already betrayed you.
And beneath that sentence was a name.
May you like
A name Lorenzo never expected to see.
Vincent Russo.
