During that time, their twelve-year-old daughter had been told that her mother had died.
“Why would you tell a child such a terrible lie?” I asked.
Robert lowered his head.
“I was a coward. I thought it would protect her. Then the years passed, and I no longer had the courage to tell her the truth.”
But the story didn’t end there.
Two weeks earlier, Sarah had found Emily and secretly met with her.
At first, Emily hadn’t believed her. But then she recognized her mother’s voice from an old song she remembered from childhood.
They had started communicating.
When Robert found out, an argument broke out.
“I told Emily that her mother could become ill again and that she shouldn’t trust her. But my daughter thought I was trying to separate them again.”
“And what happened yesterday?”
Robert began to cry.
“I was talking to my sister on the phone. I told her we needed to keep Emily away from that woman until we could find out whether their meetings were harming either of them. Emily overheard the conversation and ran away from home.”
