Chapter 2

Father' s face was a blank wall, but his eyes, for a second, showed something. Pain?

Then it was gone.

He' d always been a good father, before Emily.

He worked so hard for us, Mom too, before she passed.

He loved us. I knew he did.

This cold man wasn't the father I remembered.

He reached into his coat, pulled out a thick envelope.

"Your mother's inheritance," he said, his voice flat.

"If you go to that house, you're dead to me."

He didn't look at me when he said it.

I took the money. My hands were shaking.

"I have to, Dad," I whispered.

He didn't answer.

The walk through town to the Thorne stagecoach stop was long.

People stared.

"Crazy, just like her sister," Mrs. Henderson muttered from her porch.

"Greedy girl, after the Thorne money," Mr. Gable spat near my feet.

I kept walking.

For years, I' d gone over Emily' s things, the few the police returned.

The official story was a lie. Emily wasn't insane.

Someone did that to her.

The Thornes. It had to be.

And my father... why did he accept it so easily?

I had to find out. For Emily. For myself.