CHAPTER 7 — The Woman Who Came Back From the Dead
Rain poured across the Blackwood estate as federal agents flooded the grounds.
Emily couldn't take her eyes off the woman standing beside the black SUV.
She hadn't changed.
The same emerald eyes.
The same tiny scar above her left eyebrow.
The same silver necklace Emily remembered from childhood.
Tears rolled down Emily's face.
"...Mom?"
The woman slowly nodded.
"Emily..."
Before they could embrace, FBI agents surrounded the mysterious woman.
One of them shouted, "Ma'am, identify yourself!"
She calmly reached into her coat and produced a government badge.
"My name is Sarah Blackwood."
Everyone froze.
Richard, watching from the back of a police cruiser, screamed in terror.
"No... that's impossible!"
Sarah looked directly at him.
"You buried an empty coffin, Richard."
Emily's entire body went numb.
"What... what does that mean?"
Sarah took a shaky breath.
"Twenty-three years ago, Richard tried to kill me after discovering your grandmother had made me the sole heir to the Blackwood fortune."
"He arranged a car accident on a mountain road."
"The world believed I died."
Emily whispered, "But..."
"I survived."
Sarah revealed deep scars running across her shoulder and neck.
"Your grandmother hid me with the help of federal investigators. We spent twenty-three years building a case against everyone involved."
Emily could barely breathe.
"So... all this time..."
"You were watching me?"
Sarah smiled through tears.
"Every birthday."
"Every graduation."
"Every heartbreak."
"I wanted to hold you."
"But if Richard knew I was alive..."
"He would have finished what he started."
Emily collapsed into her mother's arms.
For the first time in twenty-three years...
Mother and daughter cried together.
But their reunion lasted less than a minute.
A sniper's bullet shattered the mansion window.
CRACK!
The shot narrowly missed Sarah's head.
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Federal agents immediately tackled everyone to the ground.
Someone was still trying to erase the Blackwood family forever.
