Since they had been out of each other’s lives, he said, there had been no reason to tell her, and besides, his new wife would not have appreciated him visiting Clara when he was in town.
Clara crossed to the window, pointed to a brick building a few blocks away, and told Emmy that it was the library where she worked.
It was only a 10-minute walk.
David then turned the conversation toward the future and asked Emmy whether she had thought about college or university.
She looked surprised.
David reminded her that she was 20 years old, and that although she had a homeschool high-school diploma, higher education might benefit her before entering the job market.
He said he would gladly help with enrollment and tuition.
Clara interjected that it was generous, but that Emmy ought to take things slowly.
There was no need to rush.
David agreed in principle, but added that the midyear enrollment period was closing soon.
If she missed it, she would have to wait until the next period, probably 6 months, perhaps until December or January.
Emmy admitted that she would love to go to college.
She had never had school friends growing up, and university seemed like a chance to meet people her own age and build a social life.
As she spoke, her hand rose unconsciously to her birthmark.
Clara noticed and told her she was beautiful exactly as she was, and that true friends would accept her completely.
David interjected that Colorado had excellent aesthetic clinics and dermatology specialists, and that modern laser treatments could significantly reduce port-wine stains.
Emmy’s interest sharpened immediately, and she asked whether such treatment was expensive.
David admitted that it probably was, but offered to pay for it as a reunion gift, a way of making up for 18 years of missed birthdays.
Clara, frustrated by what she saw as interference, said they should proceed 1 step at a time.
Moving to Colorado and beginning laser treatment were major decisions, and money was not the only issue.
Emmy’s excitement dimmed.
She agreed that they should not rush, especially while the investigation was still active and they did not yet know whether everything was safe.
David yielded on the treatment question, but returned to the issue of education.
The enrollment deadline, he insisted, was real.
Clara responded that there was no problem.
Emmy could work part-time for 6 months and begin college when she was truly ready.
The atmosphere grew strained until Emmy defused it by saying she would think about everything and make decisions in her own time.
Then, turning to Clara with a smile, she said that Clara had been right about her father: he did have a strong personality, very much like hers.
Clara laughed and said the resemblance was undeniable.
As the conversation wound down, David checked the time and reminded Clara of her 3 p.
m.
meeting with Laya Dalton.
Clara said she should probably take Emmy shopping first, since the apartment had virtually nothing in it besides furniture.
David immediately volunteered to handle that.
Clara should go home and get ready, he said, while he and Emmy picked up groceries and other necessities.
Emmy agreed and said she wanted the chance to get to know her father better.
They had a great deal of catching up to do.
Although Clara disliked leaving Emmy so soon with a man she herself had not seen in 18 years, she understood Emmy’s wish to bond with him.
After hugging her daughter and promising to check in later, Clara left for her own home, trying to ignore the unease that had been growing in her since David’s arrival.
Instead of going home directly, she drove first to the Asheville Public Library.
The familiar brick building, with its wide steps and unchanged façade, welcomed her like an old friend.
Inside, several colleagues hurried toward her, faces bright with excitement.
They had seen the television news and were overjoyed for her.
They crowded around asking how Emmy was, their happiness genuine and touching.
Yet Clara found she could not wholly join in their celebration.
Something in David’s behavior would not stop troubling her.
When the initial commotion subsided, she took Sarah aside and said quietly that something did not feel right.
In the staff room, over quickly made cups of tea, Clara laid out her concerns.
She said she believed she had seen David at Miller’s Tavern the previous night with 2 men, despite his insistence that he had only arrived that morning.
Then, at the Kesler farm, he had gone inside the house when Gary was not looking.
And now he was suddenly proposing college in Colorado and expensive birthmark treatments.
Sarah suggested that perhaps he was simply overexcited after meeting his daughter for the first time in 18 years.
It would be natural, she said, for him to want to help her.
Clara answered that she understood the point, but that something still felt wrong.
Why the sudden interest in Emmy’s future? Why the extravagant offers? Why the secrecy? Once Clara framed it that way, Sarah agreed that it did sound suspicious.
Clara said she did not yet know what to do, but that she needed to learn more about what David had been doing over the years.
She moved to one of the library computers and began researching his business activities.
If he truly could afford an Asheville apartment as well as expensive medical treatment and college tuition, then he must be financially successful.
She found several articles about his business ventures.
According to them, he owned multiple cloud-kitchen facilities in Colorado, spaces that people could rent for cooking and for recording content for videos or television.
It appeared profitable, but as Clara read further she frowned.
When David had left after Ella’s disappearance, he had held a modest job in civil service with the local government.
The transformation into a wealthy entrepreneur seemed abrupt.
Where had he obtained his startup capital? How had he acquired the skills? On a hunch, she searched for information on his wife.
The articles named her as Tazia Marin.
Clara found a social-media profile that appeared to belong to her and sent a carefully worded message introducing herself as David’s ex-wife and saying that she hoped they might meet someday.
She kept the message light and nonconfrontational.
Then she checked the time.
It was nearly 3 p.
m.
and she had to leave for the meeting with Laya Dalton.
Clara arrived at the designated café and took a quiet table by the window.
After 15 minutes passed with no sign of either Laya or any journalist, she began to worry.
She checked the email once more and sent a follow-up asking whether they were still planning to meet.
No answer came.
Uneasy now, Clara called the main number for Vogue magazine, which she had saved from earlier conversations.
When the receptionist answered, Clara asked to speak with Laya Dalton and then asked whether Laya was currently in Asheville.
The receptionist replied that Laya was in Los Angeles on a shoot and would not return to the East Coast until the following week.
Clara felt the blood drain from her body.
She asked whether Laya had perhaps sent a team to Asheville for an interview that day.
The receptionist said absolutely not and asked whether something was wrong.
Clara thanked her and ended the call without explanation.
Her mind raced.
If Laya was not in Asheville, then who had sent the email, and why had someone fabricated a meeting designed to separate her from Emmy? While she was still trying to understand it, her phone alerted her to a reply from Tazia.
The message was brief and devastating.
Tazia wrote that she was no longer married to David; they had divorced 10 years earlier.
The last she had heard through mutual acquaintances, David had moved to another state, but no one seemed to know where.
She added that she hoped Clara and her daughter were safe.
For a moment the room seemed to tilt.
David had not merely lied about entering the farmhouse.
He might have lied about his whole life.
There was no current wife in Colorado.
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