What if one of them had gotten to Dani? Threatened her?
What if her parents, when they were unable to talk what
they saw as sense into Emily, had gone to Dani instead?
It was all so strange, how she had started acting the way she
did. It was like she’d been replaced with a totally different
person. A person who had been threatened. But with what?
What was so bad that it would make Dani act that way in order
to protect herself?
If someone had threatened her, was it something from
Dani’s past? Had they threatened her business? It made Emily
furious to think her parents or someone working for her dad
could have hurt Dani that way.
Emily ground the car into park and leaped out, leaving her
door open, leaving her car right there, running in the alley. She
ran back up the stairs, taking them so fast that she nearly
stumbled and fell down the whole flight right near the top.
When she tried the door, it was still unlocked. She burst in and
then Dani was there, standing in the doorway to the kitchen, as
still as a statue, totally pale, her eyes wide with disbelief.
“You forgot your paintings.”
“I left those for you.” Emily rushed over and took Dani’s
hands. They were ice cold. She was trembling. There were
tears in her eyes that she wouldn’t let spill. This wasn’t
someone who wanted to give up on them. Anyone could see
that. “What happened?” Emily pleaded, squeezing Dani’s
hands gently. “You have to tell me. I can’t fix anything if I
don’t know.”
It took a minute of deafening silence and agonizing
heartbeats, but eventually Dani’s hands wrapped around
Emily’s. Their fingers twisted together. “Your dad came to the