Another Pair Of Eyes: Love is Not Blind

Chapter 24

September 7, 2018

"Hey Em! Didn't you live outside of Nashville growing up?" Jazmine was shouting across the office at me. I had spent all day placing a brother and a sister in a foster home. I was emotionally drained from it. Putting children into the right home was not easy task but extremely rewarding when it came together.

I opened my eyes, rubbed my forehead, and put my feet on the floor. I spun around in my office chair towards the breakroom, "Yeah, I did. Why Jaz?"

"Come here, quickly. You might know this guy on television?" I jumped out of my seat and went into the break room. A CNN reporter was speaking of a crime and pictures were flashing across the screen. I grabbed water and listened to see what the connection to Franklin could be.

We only have a few details at this tim,e but Quest Church--- you can see their church here--- sent a team of ten people to Haiti to do mission work with a local Haitian pastor. On the trip was the pastor's wife, Jessie Emerson, along with others from Quest church and a few other local churches. While taking a morning walk on the last day of the trip, she was brutally raped and murdered. At first the Haitian police, working with local detectives in Franklin, Tennessee, assumed the culprit was a native. Thanks to a text sent to a friend bragging of the crime, police were able to identify the killer as an America. Shockingly, it was in fact, one of the team members on the trip. This was a bizarre twist that is still being pieced together by police. What we know is the victim is a 26-year-old woman named Jess, as she is called, and that she is the wife of four years to Hank Emerson, pastor of Quest Church. We also know that the murderer has confessed at this time to police. He is being identified as one, Eric Luther, of Franklin, Tennessee (a picture of Eric flashed across the screen). We reached out to Martha Luther, grandmother of Eric Luther, but she declined to comment. There has been no statement given yet by Hank Emerson or the family. We will keep you informed on this story as we have more information to share. Wait just a moment...

The newscaster paused and looked down in concentration. Someone was relaying information into her earpiece.

Wow, ok, we are just getting in reports, and let me caution the viewers that this news is upsetting; reports are coming out from a source who wishes to remain anonymous from the Medical Examiner's office, that Jess Luther was in fact, pregnant at the time of her death. There will be more details to come on this tragic story. You can hear more on...

I didn't even realize I had dropped my water bottle. It was pooling water on the floor at my feet. I had covered my mouth in shock.

"Em, you ok? Who is that Em? Is he related to you? Sit down, Em, what is it?" Jazmine picked up my water bottle.

I sat, more like fell down really, into the chair. "He.... He is my brother... my twin brother."

Eric, what have you done? My worst fears were coming true. I had always feared Eric would take this to another level and hurt someone; now he had raped and killed a pregnant woman! My heart broke. It was as if I were ten years ago and I was back on that ground under that tree again, hopeless and scared with Eric grinning at me.

***********************************

July 15, 2019

It had been a little less than a year since Eric's offense; my Pappy had not survived the shock of Eric's crime. I regretted not seeing him before he died. When I got the call from mom that he had passed, I knew I had to go and see Grammy. She didn't need to be alone.

We had not gone to Franklin almost a year ago when Eric was arrested. It wasn't an easy decision. Mom and I had felt terrible not going to show some support, but the media was seeking angles on the story and we knew if we went they would hound us. They would have a field day with us leaving Eric to be raised by his grandparents. It wasn't difficult to see how this would be twisted into being our fault. We had spoken to Eric's lawyer and he was doing a good job of blaming us enough. He never was one to take ownership of things.