Chapter 4 - The Emerald Truth
The chilling threat hung heavily in the air, but Leo simply stood his ground and refused to break eye contact with the furious woman.
Before Victoria could unleash another venomous warning, Daniel’s heavy footsteps echoed loudly from the top of the marble staircase.
Victoria instantly snapped her checkbook shut and dramatically rearranged her face into a picture of concerned, motherly affection.
“I was just telling our brave little savior here that we must find him a proper room for the night,” Victoria lied smoothly, flashing Daniel a radiant, supportive smile.
Daniel nodded exhaustedly, running a hand through his greying hair as he descended the final few steps toward them.
“Leo is going to stay in the guest wing indefinitely until I can figure out exactly what the hell is going on in my own home,” Daniel declared firmly.
Over the next three days, the massive, lonely mansion transformed into a bizarre sanctuary for the strange boy from the streets.
Leo spent every single waking hour sitting patiently beside Emily in the heavily guarded sunroom.
Emily still refused to speak full sentences to anyone, but she began to sketch frantically in a large leather notebook Daniel had bought for her.
She would spend hours violently scrubbing charcoal across the heavy paper, her small face twisted in intense, painful concentration.
On the fourth afternoon, while a heavy rainstorm battered the glass windows of the sunroom, Emily finally stopped drawing and ripped a page from her book.
She slowly pushed the wrinkled paper across the glass table toward Leo, her pale hands trembling with a sudden, renewed fear.
Leo picked up the drawing, his dark eyes scanning the chaotic, jagged charcoal lines with intense focus.
It was a surprisingly detailed picture of the grand staircase, but the perspective was drawn from someone hiding behind the tall banister.
In the drawing, a shadowy figure with long hair was violently pushing another woman headfirst down the marble steps.
The victim at the bottom of the stairs was clearly meant to be Emily's mother, her body twisted at an unnatural, horrifying angle.
Leo’s heart pounded as he realized the drawing meant the fatal car crash was nothing more than an elaborate cover-up for a murder that happened inside this very house.
But what caught Leo’s attention wasn't the violence of the sketch, but rather the single detail Emily had chosen to color with a bright green marker.
On the hand of the shadowy attacker, right in the middle of the page, was a massive, highly distinctive emerald ring.
Leo slowly looked up from the terrifying drawing and gazed out into the long hallway where Victoria was currently arguing on her phone.
Glinting aggressively under the hallway lights, resting perfectly on Victoria’s right index finger, was the exact same massive emerald ring.
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Leo quickly folded the paper and shoved it deep into his pocket just as the heavy sunroom door violently burst open.
“Hand over whatever she just gave you, you little street rat,” Vance growled, stepping into the room with a menacing, bloody crowbar gripped tightly in his large hand.
