I placed my hand over hers, over the rabbit’s faded blue dress. “I’ll stay with him. The whole time.”
She studied me, needing an answer larger than words.
“Promise?” she asked.
“I promise.”
The technician arrived before midnight. Her name was Priya Shah, and she spoke to Emma as if Bunny were a patient who deserved every courtesy. She explained each tool she would use. She let Emma hold the tiny screwdriver for one second before taking it back. She placed Bunny on a clean white towel on the dining table.
Emma sat in my lap again. Mark stood by the window, silent and wrecked. Detective Ramirez watched the procedure without blinking.
Priya carefully opened a seam beneath Bunny’s left ear.
Inside the stuffing was a small waterproof capsule.
Emma made a frightened sound.
“It’s all right,” Priya said. “Bunny is all right.”
The capsule held a memory card and a silver locket.
I knew the locket before Priya opened it.
Claire wore it on our wedding day.
Inside was a photograph I had never seen. Claire was holding newborn Emma in the hospital bed, exhausted and luminous. I stood beside them, younger by a lifetime, crying so hard my face was twisted. On the other side was a tiny folded scrap of paper.
For Emma, when she needs to know.
Priya unfolded it with gloved fingers.
Claire’s handwriting said, You were wanted before you were born, loved before you took your first breath, and you made our world bigger when you arrived.
Emma stared at the words.
“She wrote that for me?” she asked.
“Yes,” I said.
The memory card contained video.
The first file showed the parking lot of St. Agnes. The image shook wildly, filmed from inside Claire’s car. Adrian Vale stood outside the driver’s door, his face clearer than I had ever seen it. Vanessa stood several feet behind him, one arm folded tightly across her body.
“You don’t get to walk away with it,” Adrian was saying.
Claire’s voice came through the recording, thin but steady. “I sent copies.”
“You didn’t.”
“You don’t know what I did.”
Vanessa stepped forward. “Claire, you have a child. Think about what you’re doing.”
“I am thinking about my child.”
Adrian opened the car door.
The screen jolted. Claire gasped.
Then Vanessa said, “Take the phone.”
The footage dissolved into darkness, but the audio continued: a struggle, Claire shouting, a car door slamming, tires spinning on wet pavement. A few seconds later, Adrian’s voice came close to the microphone.
“She’ll stop fighting when she sees the barrier.”
Vanessa screamed, “Adrian, slow down!”
The next sound was metal tearing against concrete.
There was silence.
Then Adrian, breathing hard, said, “You wanted her gone.”
Vanessa sobbed.
The recording ended.
No one moved.
