Escape from Mr. Whitman (Emma and Theodore) novel Chapter 254

The next morning, the car trouble was sorted out. Emma and the rest of the touring company piled back into their van, heading toward their next stop: Venice.

Venice, the fabled city of canals—and, as everyone joked, the city of “Guardian Angels.” In every street and shop window, rows of cherubic angel dolls gazed out, wide-eyed and smiling. The sight brought a pang of nostalgia for Emma, who remembered the shelf at home lined with similar dolls. Her family used to say it was so she wouldn’t feel alone.

She used to believe, quite naively, that those dolls were really there to keep her company. Now, she wasn’t so sure who they’d been meant to comfort.

Sebastian noticed her lingering by the shop window and grinned. “Want to pick one out?” he asked.

Emma shook her head. The dolls weren’t the problem—it was the memories that came with them.

Suddenly, her phone lit up with a call from an unfamiliar international number.

She answered. On the other end, a polite voice introduced themselves as the front desk of a hotel in Germany—the one they’d checked out of that morning.

“Ma’am, we found a set of keys in your room. Would you like us to mail them to you? If you give us your new address, we can send them right away.”

Keys?

Emma hesitated. “Is there a keychain with a photo of a young man and woman—both Asian?”

“Yes, the girl is you. We remember your face,” the receptionist confirmed.

Emma let out a soft laugh. “Thank you, but you can throw them away. I don’t need them anymore.”

“Throw them away? Are you sure?” The receptionist sounded surprised, as if they’d misheard.

“Yes, I’m sure. Please just toss them. Thank you for calling,” Emma replied, her voice steady.

The call ended. Emma knew exactly which keys they were.

Her apartment door had a keypad lock, but there was a spare key just in case—the kind of practical detail Theodore insisted on after they got married. “What if the batteries die, or the code slips your mind?” he’d said. “Better to have a backup.” So she’d strung the key onto a keyring with one of the few photos of them together—a little memento she’d tucked into a side pocket of her purse.

Five years had passed. She hadn’t changed purses, but she had changed. She’d forgotten all about the key until this morning, when it must have slipped from its hiding place.

Maybe this was fate’s way of marking an ending. She and Theodore were done. The key—and all it symbolized—should be left behind.

“Come on,” she said, spotting an ice cream shop across the street. “Let’s get some gelato. When in Italy, right?”

Back at the German hotel, the front desk called to the cleaning staff. “This? The guest said to throw it out.”

A man at the counter glanced over and froze, eyes widening. “What’s being thrown out? Let me see!”

Theodore pulled out his passport and scrolled through his phone to find their marriage certificate photo, laying it all out for the manager. “She’s my wife. These are our keys. How can you just throw out a guest’s belongings? That’s completely irresponsible! If these keys had fallen into the wrong hands, anyone could break into our home!”

The receptionist argued back, “We already called the guest. She said she didn’t want them, told us to throw them away.”

“That’s impossible!” Theodore shot to his feet. “That’s her house key—you really think she’d just leave it behind? And with our photo on it?”

He simply couldn’t believe it. Emma would never willingly let a stranger toss away something as important as the key to their home—especially not with their only photo together attached. He was certain the hotel was just being careless.

The receptionist, growing frustrated, said, “If you don’t believe me, I can call her again with you listening.”

Then Theodore’s mind caught on something—the front desk had Emma’s new phone number.

“Give me her number. I’ll call her myself.”

“Absolutely not! We can’t give out guests’ private information,” the receptionist replied instantly.

“I’m her husband!” Theodore insisted, voice raw.

The receptionist stared at him, then narrowed her eyes in suspicion. “If you’re her husband, why don’t you have her number? Are you trying to scam us? I’m calling the police!”