Chapter 10 - TONY'S CONFESSION
Tony had driven Claire to the lighthouse thirteen years earlier.
Anthony Romano was already dead.
The Harbor Circle was hunting her.
Claire knew she would not survive.
She made Tony promise to protect Emma.
Then armed men arrived.
Tony fired.
Claire was hit.
She begged him not to let them take her alive.
Emma stared at him.
“No.”
Tony cried.
The giant gray-haired man who frightened everyone cried in the basement of St. Catherine's.
“I tried to save her.”
“You killed her.”
“I fired at the man behind her.”
Emma's anger disappeared.
Tony had not killed Claire intentionally.
The bullet passed through Michael Dane's father.
Then struck Claire.
Tony carried her to the lighthouse.
She died before sunrise.
He spent thirteen years believing Emma had been moved to a safe family.
Mr. Cole had falsified the records.
Tony had failed her.
Emma hit him.
Once.
Twice.
Tony did not stop her.
Then she collapsed against him.
“I waited,” she sobbed. “I kept thinking someone would come.”
Tony closed his eyes.
“I know.”
“No, you don't.”
“You're right.”
Emma cried.
Tony held her only after she grabbed his coat first.
Above them, Vincent dismantled St. Catherine's.
Police loyal to the Harbor Circle were arrested.
Records were seized.
Children were moved to emergency care.
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But Michael Dane escaped.
And he took Isabella.
