The night sixteen-year-old Emma Mercer was thrown out of her grandfather\u2019s house, the Ohio air was cold enough to hurt.<\/p>\n
She stood barefoot in the hallway clutching her school backpack while Richard Mercer pointed toward the front door.<\/p>\n
\u201cGet out. Your room belongs to your cousin now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Emma stared at him.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut Grandpa, Dad said I could stay here until he and Mom got back from Chicago.\u201d<\/p>\n
Richard\u2019s expression hardened.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour father doesn\u2019t run my house.\u201d<\/p>\n
Behind him stood Emma\u2019s aunt Denise.<\/p>\n
Beside the staircase was Denise\u2019s son Cody, already wearing Emma\u2019s gaming headset around his neck.<\/p>\n
Three days earlier, Daniel and Rachel Mercer had rushed to Chicago after Rachel\u2019s mother suffered a stroke.<\/p>\n
Daniel trusted his father to look after Emma.<\/p>\n
Richard had promised she would be safe.<\/p>\n
Now Emma\u2019s suitcase sat open on the porch.<\/p>\n
Someone had stuffed her clothes into a trash bag.<\/p>\n
Her winter coat was missing.<\/p>\n
Her charger was gone.<\/p>\n
Even the silver necklace Rachel had given her was tangled among the clothes Cody had thrown aside.<\/p>\n
Denise folded her arms.<\/p>\n
\u201cCody needs the room. He\u2019s had a difficult semester.\u201d<\/p>\n
Emma stared at her.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo where am I supposed to sleep?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYour father has money. Call him.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMy phone is dead.\u201d<\/p>\n
Richard opened the front door.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen find somewhere to charge it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Emma looked at the clock.<\/p>\n
12:43 a.m.<\/p>\n
For a moment, she thought one of them would stop this.<\/p>\n
Nobody did.<\/p>\n
She picked up her backpack and the trash bag.<\/p>\n
Then she stepped outside.<\/p>\n
The door closed behind her.<\/p>\n
Click.<\/p>\n
The lock turned.<\/p>\n
Emma stood beneath the porch light staring at the house where she had spent Christmases, birthdays, and summer weekends.<\/p>\n
Then she started walking.<\/p>\n
Twenty minutes later, she reached a closed pharmacy.<\/p>\n
There was an outdoor electrical outlet near the entrance.<\/p>\n
Emma found the emergency cable she always kept in her backpack and plugged in her phone.<\/p>\n
When the screen finally turned on, she called one person.<\/p>\n
Her father.<\/p>\n
Daniel answered on the second ring.<\/p>\n
\u201cEm? What\u2019s wrong?\u201d<\/p>\n
Emma tried to speak.<\/p>\n
Instead, she started crying.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The night sixteen-year-old Emma Mercer was thrown out of her grandfather\u2019s house, the Ohio air was cold enough to hurt. She stood barefoot in the hallway clutching her school backpack while Richard Mercer pointed toward the front door. \u201cGet out. Your room belongs to your cousin now.\u201d Emma stared at him. \u201cBut Grandpa, Dad said […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","class_list":["post-595","sr_chapter","type-sr_chapter","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/fantatv.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/sr_chapter\/595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/fantatv.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/sr_chapter"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/fantatv.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/sr_chapter"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fantatv.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/fantatv.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/sr_chapter\/595\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/fantatv.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}