Free Emma's Treasures by Rebecca Joyce Page A

she needed to finish.
    “Go on, Emma. What happened after that?” Tucker coaxed, handing her a tissue.
    “Well, Kyle, the guy who gave me a ride, he was nice. We talked and talked. I found out that he was a police officer in Denver. He asked if I had anywhere to go, and when I said no, he offered me a place to stay till I got back on my feet. Well, days turned into months, and before I knew it, I was in the delivery room.
    “He was there when I delivered Tabitha. He was there walking the floors with me when she had colic. When Tabitha was about eight months old, he asked me to marry him, but I said no. I couldn’t do that to him. He knew I loved someone else, and God knows he tried relentlessly to get me to name the father, but I never did. Then one night, I was getting ready to put Tabitha down to bed, when a knock at the door surprised me. I was shocked to see his partner there. Only it wasn’t a social visit. His partner came to tell me that Kyle was missing. They believed he was taken hostage and later killed after a failed drug bust, but they were never able to recover his body. I was once again alone and on my own.
    “After a while I was notified that the police station had received a photo of Kyle with a bullet hole in his head, after that, they considered him dead. Everything was crazy. There was the funeral, and people saying how sorry they were. Then there was this attorney who told me that Kyle had left everything to me, the house, his pension, everything. Even in death, he took care of me and Tabitha.
    “After his death, I enrolled in school, put some money away, and started over. It wasn’t long till the years flew by. Then in February of this year, two days after Tabitha’s birthday, another knock came from the door, and this man was standing there, a Mr. Garland. He told me he was an attorney for the estate of my father. So I let him in.”
    “Wait a minute. You just let a complete stranger into your home, without checking his ID, or anything?” Travis asked, sitting up quickly. Emma looked up at him, moving to find a more comfortable position on the couch. “I know it sounds stupid now, but at the time, I was still dealing Kyle’s death,” she whispered.
    “Emma, sweetheart, it’s okay. Losing someone you care about can be a hard situation,” Tate explained. “Emma, please continue.”
    “Well, like I said, I let this man in, wondering why he was there, because Daddy was bankrupt when he died. But apparently I was wrong about everything. The moment he closed the door, this man became belligerent and downright hateful. He kept going on and on about how my family had deceived him, and he wanted what was his. I didn’t know what he was talking about, but when he mentioned a will and the deed to the ranch, I got worried. I thought Daddy lost the ranch. When Dad died, he was broke. There was no will, no money, no ranch, and I told this man that, but he didn’t believe me. When I told him to get out, he grabbed me and started hitting me. He hit me so hard, I screamed and woke Tabitha. She came out of her room, and he saw her. I told Tabitha to go back to bed, and she did. The moment she was gone, this man began punching me over and over again. When he finally stopped, he grabbed my shirt and pulled me close to his face, and said, ‘You have exactly six months to get your hands on that deed and the money from the will, or I will come back and kill you, or kill your bastard brat.’ Then he threw me across the floor. Before he left the house, he said, ‘Six months, Emma. Denver at 7:00 p.m., six months from this date at the Sheridan Hotel, or you and your bastard are dead, and I will find you.’”
    Travis stood ramrod straight near the window with his back to her. He could feel the anger rolling off of him. Tucker was sitting on the love seat staring into space, as his knee quickly bouncing. Tate was still sitting next to her, holding her hand, looking directly through her, as if she wasn’t