Free The Perfect Mother by Nina Darnton Page B

can’t feed their families.”
    “Yes, so you said.” Jennifer wanted to know how deeply Emma was involved, but she realized that wouldn’t be productive. What was important now was for Emma to lead them to him. The rest could come later.
    “I think I understand,” she said slowly. “Is this what you were worried we would find out?”
    “Partly.”
    “Partly? What else? Please tell me. Trust me, Emma.”
    Emma sat down. She took a deep breath and let it out through her mouth, making a slight whistling noise.
    “I can’t, Mom. I’m sorry. You’d better go now. But I promise I’ll tell the police what I can.”
    Jennifer wanted to make one last plea before leaving. “Emma, I hope you know what you’re facing. You want to protect him and that’s loyal and I admire the impulse. But are you willing to go to jail here, in Spain, for years, for something you didn’t do? If Paco is innocent and he is a good person, he should be here to help you. If he’s guilty and he’s a good person, he shouldn’t let you take the blame for his crime. Either way, he should be here.”
    “Guilty of what, Mom?” Emma shouted in frustration. “I keep telling you he wasn’t even there.”
    Jennifer tried to calm her. “Okay, I believe you. But the police need to speak to him. And they’ll find him eventually. If you help them, it will help you.”
    Emma seemed to have collected herself. “I love you, Mom,” she murmured. “But I think you’d better go now. Don’t worry about me. I know what I’m doing. I’ll be okay.”
    She turned around and faced the opposite wall. Jennifer kissed the back of her head. Speaking softly into her ear, she tenderly stroked her hair. She begged her again to talk to the police more openly and reminded her to first talk to José and give him leads that would help Roberto in his investigation. Without turning around, Emma nodded her agreement and reached behind to squeeze her mother’s hand. Jennifer walked slowly and reluctantly toward the door, but before she got there Emma was on her feet and running to her, hugging her and resting her head for a moment on her chest. Jennifer put her arm around her and held her close in a familiar gesture of comfort. How many times in how many circumstances had she held her child in this way to help heal hurts large and small? This physical act set off a rush of sense memory and maternal protectiveness so strong she felt it as pain. She left much more worried than before but also, somehow, less empty and confused. She knew what to do. Emma was back and she needed her mother. That, at least, was a familiar dynamic. Jennifer couldn’t disappoint her.

CHAPTER 9
    A fter visiting Emma, Jennifer returned to the hotel to call Mark and fill him in. He was upset, but not completely surprised, to learn that Emma’s boyfriend was a drug dealer. He could see how she would be vulnerable to someone who played upon her naïveté and what he called her “middle-class American guilt” to convince her he was doing it to help the poor. “Maybe she wasn’t ready, wasn’t mature enough, to be on her own, Jen. We shouldn’t have let her go.”
    “That’s taking an unfair, negative view,” Jennifer said. “She has always had a big heart and a strong sense of injustice and it sounds like she was taken advantage of and misled by this guy. But how could we know? Lots of kids her age travel to Europe in their junior year. Emma seemed like the perfect candidate.” She reminded him that they had been proud of Emma because of her sensitivity to the needs of less fortunate people. “Remember when she got involved in the Innocence Project?” she asked. “And how she always believed everyone who claimed to be unjustly convicted?”
    “I know,” he said. “I used to think that was sweet. It looks more worrisome given what you’ve just told me.”
    She was unhappy with the direction the conversation was taking. She felt uneasy after hanging up and wondered what she