Chapter 1 - The Bloody Truth
The triplets hit Emily’s legs so hard the worn suitcase fell onto the pavement.
Ethan, Noah, and Liam buried their faces in her navy uniform, sobbing hysterically. Their small bodies were shaking, and warm blood smeared against her yellow cleaning gloves.
"Miss Emily! Don't leave us!" Ethan shrieked, his tiny fingers clawing at her waist. "She's going to hurt us! She's going to hurt you!"
"Shh, shh, I'm here, I've got you," Emily gasped, dropping to her knees on the cold street, wrapping her arms around all three boys at once.
Her heart hammered in her throat as she inspected the blood covering their arms and ripped shirts. The blood wasn't coming from deep wounds—it was coming from jagged scratches and cuts across their palms and wrists, mixed with dark red juice and shatter marks.
"Stay back!" a voice roared across the quiet street.
Richard Hawthorne sprinted up, his designer leather shoes skidding against the asphalt. His face was ghastly white, his tie loosened, his eyes wild with terror.
"Boys!" Richard gasped, reaching out to grab Liam’s shoulder. "What did you do?! What happened in that room?!"
"DON'T TOUCH US!" Liam screamed, flinching backward into Emily’s chest so hard he almost knocked her over. "YOU BELIEVED HER! YOU LET HER HURT MISS EMILY!"
Richard froze as if struck by lightning. The sight of his five-year-old sons cowering from him—looking at him not as a father, but as a threat—pierced straight through his chest.
"Liam... Noah... Ethan..." Richard’s voice cracked, dropping into a desperate whisper. "I’m your father. I was trying to protect you. She... Miss Emily stole—"
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"SHE DIDN'T STEAL ANYTHING!" Noah yelled, pulling a tiny, crumpled piece of paper out of his ripped pocket and waving it in the air with his bloody hand. "VICTORIA PUT THE WATCH IN MISS EMILY'S BAG! WE SAW HER!"
Richard went completely still. "What... what did you say?"
