CHAPTER TEN
Emilia gripped her phone in her shaking hand and stared at the message on her phone.
Please help me, Emilia! They will kill me!
The phone rang again. It was her mother calling. Could she ignore her mother’s cry for help?
Emilia squeezed her eyes shut and answered the call.
“Mom,” she said tightly.
“Oh, Emilia!” Gisele cried. “Where are you? I called your old landlady, and she told me that you’d moved! Why didn’t you tell me? Where are you right now, Emilia?”
“I’m fine, Mom,” Emilia answered. “Who’s trying to kill you?”
“I...I’ve lost the house. I don’t have a place to stay now,” Gisele wailed.
“What?”
“I lost a huge sum of money. I had to sell the house to pay the debt. But it’s not enough. And I can’t pay. If I can’t pay them, they’ll kill me!”
“You’re still gambling?” Emilia’s voice rose. “You told me, no, you promised me that you’d quit! Why? Dad left the house to you and you gambled it away! How could you...” Her voice quavered and Emilia had to stop before she screamed obscenities at her mother.
Gisele started to cry. “I have nowhere to go,” she sobbed loudly. “You have to help me, Emilia.”
Emilia bit back an insult. Even though Gisele had never cared for her, Emilia wouldn’t stoop to kicking someone when she was down.
“Please, Emilia,” Gisele begged. “Can I come and live with you? We’ll be together, mother and daughter. We’ll take care of each other. Just tell me where you are. I’ll come to you. I’ll find a job and I’ll pay my debts slowly. I won’t gamble again. Please, Emilia...” she pleaded.
Emilia clenched her fist and took a long breath. “Tell me something,” she said at last. “Tell me the truth.”
“Of course,” Gisele said, her voice eager and hopeful.
“Some people tried to kidnap me when I was in the city,” Emilia said slowly. “Did you tell anyone what I am?”
“Emilia, I...oh, I never thought you’d think so poorly of your own mother!” Gisele gasped. “You actually thought that I was involved with those kidnappers? I don’t know what to say. You...you break my heart, Emilia! You break your poor mother’s heart, you know that?” Gisele burst into tears and started crying noisily over the phone.
Emilia sighed. “All right, stop crying, Mom. I needed to know. That’s all.”
Gisele blew her nose and continued in a hurt, tearful voice, “So, where are you now? I’m just so worried about you. Tell me where you are, Emilia.”
Emilia glanced out her window. “I’m in Shadow Point,” she said softly.
“Shadow Point?”
“Yes.”
“Shadow Point,” Gisele repeated, and this time Emilia heard the smile in her voice. “Ah, it’s a small town surrounded by hills and forests. Interesting...there are a lot of paranormals in this town.”
Emilia frowned. Gisele was looking up the location of Shadow Point at this very moment while she was talking to her. She was probably reading all about Shadow Point right now on a mobile device or laptop.
“Where are you staying now, Mom?” Emilia asked.
“Hmm?” Gisele said distractedly and Emilia thought she could hear muffled voices in the background.
“Is there someone else there with you?” Emilia said, a chill slithering down her spine.
“What? Why would you think that? Silly child,” Gisele replied with an awkward laugh. “Okay, I have to go now. I’m so glad I called!” Before Emilia could say another word, her mother disconnected.
Emilia stared at the phone for a long time, replaying her mother’s words in her mind. Gisele had sounded so desperate and remorseful, and she’d sounded so sincere in wanting to build a new life with Emilia.
But she hadn’t even bothered to ask for her exact address. She hadn’t mentioned any plans to travel to Shadow Point at all.
What was going on?
Emilia was shaking badly as she put the phone down. Was Gisele lying to her?
“I’ve made a mistake,” Emilia whispered, punching the pillow. “I’ve made the same old mistake!”
She should have kept her guard up. She had repeatedly reminded herself not to trust anyone, so why did she give Gisele the benefit of the doubt?
Emilia clutched her head in her hands. “Because she’s my mother!’
Loving mothers called their daughters because they cared for them. But Gisele only called Emilia when she wanted something from her.
She had fallen for Gisele’s sob story again. Gisele knew how tender-hearted she was, and she knew just what to say to play on Emilia’s sympathy. In Gisele’s book, kindness was just a weakness to be exploited.
“I may be a fool, but I can’t be a coward! I can’t keep running,” Emilia whispered angrily. “I’m not going to let her mess up my life!”
Emilia checked and rechecked all the doors and windows in the house, and after making sure that everything was bolted and locked, she crawled into bed and lay in the dark, listening to her own pounding heartbeats.
It was a long time later that exhaustion finally took over and Emilia drifted off into a fitful, troubled sleep.