A Sister's Promise

Prologue

      Finally the last of the funeral guests was gone. Emma hated funerals, in the past few years she'd been forced to attend several and they were always the same. People dressed in black, crying as if they'd lost someone precious even if the deceased was a distant cousin they had only met once or twice, and friends and neighbors would bring casseroles for the bereaved family as if the hole formerly filled by a loved one could be filled by an over baked brick of broccoli and cheese.
      In a room filled with well wishers and family members Emma felt as if she were the only one who truly missed her grandmother. After all she was the one who knew her best,Emma had spent every summer and holiday with her Gran since she was five years old and her parents had sent her off to boarding school. Everyone else saw Gran either as this stern figure who was a true matriarch of her clan and then later as a silly old woman who was slowly becoming senile. But Emma knew better, her Gran was not senile she was haunted, haunted by memories of things she could not change. She had strived for years to make amends for her family's past but had died before she could truly complete her mission. Now it was Emma's turn, leaving her parents to deal with the remaining stragglers she headed up to the room that had been hers for the past 12 summers and christmases of her life. Sitting down on her bed Emma fingered the quilt her Gran had made for her 13th birthday made from old dresses worn by her, her mother, and her sister back when she was a child. Reaching under her pillow Emma pulled out a hard bound diary, her Gran's diary. "Everything is in there Peanut' herbGran had said those last days in the hospital ' the old trunk in the attic hidden under my old wedding dress, read it, I know you will find some things impossible to believe but you must trust me it's all true." Emma had found the diary exactly where Gran had said and had promised solemnly to wait to read it until after her Gran had passed, she also promised to tell no one about it or about her Gran's final request, the diary is what would help her and guide her, everything clue and puzzle piece her Gran had been able to piece together and it was up to Emma to put everything together. "You're special Emma you always have been, you are the only one I can entrust this to. Use what you learn and find her, find the sister I lost so long ago and who I know is out there. Tell her how sorry I am that I wasn't able to help her, find her for me Emma. Find Alice Cullen."