My Great Escape Led Me to You (Emily Blair) novel Chapter 694

“So, you’re both just going to let me hand these files over?”

Brandon Ross and Helen Ross hesitated, exchanging uneasy glances before looking back at her.

Helen’s voice quivered. “What exactly do you have in there?”

Emily Blair arched an eyebrow. “So you’re really going to keep pretending until you hit a dead end, huh?”

Brandon and Helen pressed their lips together, wary and silent.

“Fine, have it your way,” Emily said. “Your brother, Matthew Ross, works at a public hospital. Your mom picks up part-time cleaning jobs whenever she can. Your family’s from a small town called Cascadia. You both vanished a month after college graduation, and then you magically reappeared as Peter and Amanda Clark. You went to Cascadia Elementary, then—”

“That’s enough! Stop it, please!”

Brandon was breathing hard, his face ashen. “What do you want from us?!”

He nearly growled the words.

Emily’s tone was calm. “Just answer a few questions for me—honestly—and I promise I won’t turn in the evidence.”

Helen clutched Brandon’s arm. “Don’t do it. Don’t fall for her trap. She’s not the only one who can help us. Isabella already said she can protect us. We don’t need to get involved with her. Let’s just go.”

Brandon’s eyes flickered with indecision, but finally, he nodded. “Fine. We’re leaving.”

“You sure you want to walk out now?” Emily lifted the folder and waved it in front of them.

She took a step closer, a sly smile on her lips. “Isabella Austin promised you protection, right? Did she tell you when she’d actually do something?”

Emily spoke gently, almost kindly. “You’re smart, both of you—PhDs, right? Think it through. Whose side makes more sense? Isabella’s, or mine?”

“All I want is to ask you a few questions. Nothing I ask will affect your degree or graduation. It only concerns Isabella. If you answer honestly, I’ll make sure you walk out of here with your futures intact.”

“But if you don’t choose me, all these years of hard work—gone.”

She tapped the folder against her palm. “Take a moment. Decide. Me, or Isabella Austin, who’s still stuck in Eldervale.”

Her voice was calm, almost soothing.

Even Brandon and Helen, who’d come in bristling with hostility, found themselves starting to believe her—if only because she made everything sound so reasonable.

Brandon’s voice was gravelly and low. “We need a moment to talk.”