Claire laughed when Margaret suggested it.
“My name is Claire.”
Margaret smiled.
“I know.”
“But Emily deserves something too.”
Claire understood.
The little girl who disappeared deserved to be remembered.
So did the woman she became.
PART 9
Two years after Sophie first saw Margaret’s scar, Willow Creek held a small community event.
The Emily Project had helped more than one hundred women.
Local journalists attended.
Margaret hated cameras.
She nearly refused to speak.
Then Claire took her hand.
“You don’t have to.”
Margaret looked around the room.
She saw Sophie.
Nathan.
Claire.
Her granddaughters.
Rebecca.
Then she stepped toward the microphone.
“My name is Margaret Holloway.”
Her voice was steady.
“For forty years, I believed silence kept my family safe.”
She paused.
“It didn’t.”
The room remained still.
“Silence protected the man who hurt us.”
“It protected the people who helped him.”
“It protected every lie he told.”
Margaret glanced at Nathan.
