She missed her little daughter, but at the same time she was afraid of what would happen when Louisa came back home. She’d never felt the responsibility for her child as a burden before, but now she did. It was a burden that she would have to bear all alone. It was her task to protect Louisa and the still-unborn baby. Emma couldn’t understand why Florian had never told her about his twin sister. What else had he kept from her? What would her life be like from now on? She had saved some money, and her father had bequeathed a condo in Frankfurt to her; the rental income from the condo would keep her afloat for a while. In the middle of the night, Emma had even written an e-mail to her previous boss and cautiously asked whether there might be a job for her in the office. She surfed the Net till dawn, visiting forums in which women reported how their children had been abused. She read horror stories about loving husbands and fathers who had turned out to be child molesters. In all these accounts she tried to find parallels to her own life and to Florian.
