He had been running.
Protecting something.
Protecting them.
Before Emma could process it all, her phone rang.
Rebecca.
“Emma, where are you?”
“We’re at Miss Maggie’s. Mom told me to get something.”
Rebecca’s voice was tight.
“Stay there. Don’t move. Daniel and I are coming. Someone broke into our house while I was at the hospital. They tore the place apart.”
Emma’s blood went cold.
“I think they were looking for your mother’s locket,” Rebecca whispered. “And Emma, your aunt Charlotte is in Chicago. She’s been asking questions at the hospital.”
Miss Maggie locked the door and pulled the curtains.
When Daniel and Rebecca arrived, relief and fear came with them.
Daniel saw the bracelet on Emma’s wrist.
“Sarah’s bracelet.”
Emma stepped back.
“How much do you know?”
“Everything that matters,” Daniel said. “And it’s time you knew too.”
He explained quickly.
Michael Riley had been his closest friend. A bioengineer. A visionary. Years earlier, Michael joined an archaeological expedition led by Alexander Webb near Alexandria, where they discovered an underground chamber containing technology that should not have existed five thousand years ago.
The device inside harvested solar energy with near-perfect efficiency.
Michael translated that discovery into modern science.
The Helios Protocol.
A clean energy system powerful enough to threaten every company and government that profited from scarcity.
“And Charlotte?” Emma asked.
“Your father’s sister,” Rebecca said. “Senior executive at VastCorp Energy. She tried to convince him to sell the technology exclusively. When he refused, she betrayed him.”
“Charlotte knows parts of the project,” Daniel added. “Not all of it. That is why she wants the bracelet.”
A car pulled up outside.
Then another.
Miss Maggie looked through the curtain.
“Auburn hair. Designer coat. Two men with her.”
Daniel’s face hardened.
“Charlotte.”
They moved fast.
Daniel stayed behind to delay her. Rebecca, Miss Maggie, Emma, and Lily slipped through the service corridor and down the icy fire escape. At Union Station, Charlotte found them again, scanning the crowd with corporate certainty. Rebecca created a diversion while Miss Maggie pulled Emma toward the real platform.
Boston.
They boarded the Lakeshore Limited with minutes to spare.
As Chicago’s lights disappeared into snowy darkness, Emma touched the bracelet.
Pyramid.
Scarab.
Sun disc.
Ankh.
Lotus.
Cube.
Sphere.
Seven pieces of her father’s truth.
In Boston, Daniel’s emergency device led them not to Webb’s office, but to the basement conservation lab of the Museum of Ancient Innovation.
Dr. Alexander Webb opened the door before they knocked.
Salt-and-pepper hair. Wire-rimmed glasses. A rumpled tweed jacket over a lab coat. His eyes widened at the sight of Emma.