Chapter 6 - The Gates of Oakridge
By four o'clock that afternoon, the rain had completely given way to clear, brilliant sunshine over Oakridge, Ohio.
A convoy of three sleek black SUVs pulled up to the rusted chain-link fence of the Oakridge Children's Center.
The center was an old, brown brick building with peeling yellow paint and a small, dusty playground in the rear. Inside, the air smelled of floor wax and stale apple juice.
The front door opened, and Lily stepped inside, followed closely by Arthur and his team of attorneys.
At the front desk sat the same tired receptionist who had taken Emma four months ago. She looked up from her computer, her eyes widening as she saw the clean, beautifully dressed little girl walking toward her, backed by a man in a tailored suit and three men carrying legal briefcases.
"May... may I help you?" the receptionist stammered.
"I came for my sister," Lily said clearly. "Emma Morgan."
The director of the center, a strict woman named Mrs. Vance (no relation to the criminal Vance), rushed out of her back office, holding a stack of yellow legal files. "Now wait just a minute! You can't just walk in here! Lily Morgan is a runaway ward of the state! We were notified by court order that—"
Arthur’s lead attorney stepped forward, dropping a fifty-page legal document stamped with the gold seal of the Ohio Supreme Court directly onto the desk.
"Mrs. Vance," the attorney stated smoothly. "This is an emergency order of absolute custody and legal adoption, signed one hour ago by Chief Justice Thomas. All state holds have been vacated due to gross procedural fraud. Mr. Arthur Montgomery is now the full, legal guardian of both Lily and Emma Morgan."
Mrs. Vance read the top page, her eyes scanning the Supreme Court seal, her face draining of color. "This... this was processed in an hour?"
"When you save the life of a man who endows half the hospital wings in the state," Arthur said coldly, stepping up beside Lily, "things move quickly. Where is the child?"
Mrs. Vance swallowed hard, pointing a trembling finger toward the back door leading to the playground. "She's... she's outside."
Lily didn't wait for the adults. She turned and ran down the hallway, her new leather boots slapping against the linoleum floor.
She pushed open the heavy rear crash door and stepped out into the bright afternoon sun.
The playground was quiet. A few children were playing in the sandbox, but sitting alone on a wooden bench near the far fence was a tiny five-year-old girl with blonde pigtails, wearing a faded red sweater that was two sizes too small. She was holding a plastic shovel, staring blankly at her dirty shoes.
"Emma!" Lily screamed, her voice cracking with four months of buried pain and love.
The little girl on the bench froze.
Slowly, Emma turned her head. Her gray eyes—so like Lily’s—widened in complete, disbelieving shock.
The plastic shovel slipped from her tiny hands and fell into the dirt.
"Lily?" Emma whispered.
"EMMA!"
Lily sprinted across the grass, tears blinding her eyes.
Emma threw herself off the bench, her small legs pumping as fast as they could go across the playground. "LILY!"
They collided in the middle of the grass.
Lily dropped to her knees, wrapping her arms tightly around her little sister, lifting her off the ground. Emma buried her face in Lily’s lavender sweater, sobbing uncontrollably, her tiny hands clutching at Lily’s back as if she were afraid her sister would vanish into smoke again.
"You came back!" Emma sobbed into her neck. "You said you were finding a home! You came back!"
"I promised you," Lily cried, pressing her cheek against Emma’s soft hair, kissing her sister's forehead over and over again. "I promised I'd find us a home. I found it, Emma. I found it."
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Standing at the edge of the playground, Arthur Montgomery watched the two sisters clinging to each other in the sunshine. He reached up, pressing his hand against his bandaged neck, feeling his heart beat strong and steady against his chest.
For the first time in his life, Arthur realized that all his billions of dollars had never bought him anything half as valuable as the scene unfolding before his eyes.
