Rachel was also startled by Michael’s shouting. “Michael, calm down,” she said, placing a hand on his arm. “Shouting will only make it harder for her to eat.”
Later, Michael sat Emma on his lap.
“Emma, don’t you want to eat because it’s different from Daddy’s cooking?”
Emma nodded slightly. Rachel found hope. Starting the next day, she desperately began researching recipes.
Hamburgers, homemade pizza, pasta, omelet rice—she made dish after dish, but Emma’s reaction didn’t change. “Sorry, Mama,” she would say, refusing to eat. After two weeks, Michael’s attitude began to change.
“Rachel, isn’t there a problem with your cooking?” he said one night. “Emma never refused to eat like this before.”
His words pierced deep into Rachel’s heart. “I’m doing my best.”
“But you’re not getting results,” Michael’s voice was cold.
“Can’t you make cooking more like my previous wife’s?”
Michael left for a three-day business trip on Friday morning. Rachel was secretly relieved. “Emma, what would you like to do today?” Rachel asked brightly.
“I want to go to the park,” Emma answered in a small voice. It was the first time Emma had expressed a wish of her own. At the park, Emma showed a smile for the first time in a long while.
She even took a little bite of the sandwiches Rachel had made. “Is it good?” Rachel asked, and Emma nodded. “I like Mama’s sandwiches.” Hearing those words, Rachel almost cried.
That evening, however, when dinner time came, Emma’s expression clouded again. She stared at the food, her hand holding the fork trembling. “Sorry, Mama.
I’m not hungry after all.”
That night, after putting Emma to bed, Rachel sat alone in the living room. Why did Emma seem better when Michael wasn’t around? After 10 p.m., she heard small footsteps.
Emma appeared in the living room, her body trembling slightly. “Mama,” Emma called again, “I can only talk when Daddy isn’t watching.”
Rachel’s heart began beating rapidly. “What do you want to talk about?”
Emma looked around, grabbed Rachel’s clothes with her small hands, and began to speak, large tears spilling from her eyes.
“The previous mama also stopped eating food… and then… and then…”
“Take your time,” Rachel said, rubbing her back. Emma took a deep breath. “The previous mama ate food at first, too, but gradually she stopped eating.
Daddy got angry. Then… Daddy started mixing white powder into the previous mama’s food.”
Rachel’s blood froze. “Daddy said it was medicine, but after that, the previous mama stopped eating even more and was always sleepy.
And then… the previous mama died. Daddy said she died from illness, but Emma knows. After Daddy mixed the white powder, the previous mama became strange.”
Rachel’s world collapsed.
Michael’s former wife didn’t die from illness. “Emma?” Rachel asked in a trembling voice. “So, you’re afraid to eat my cooking?”
Emma nodded vigorously.
“I’m scared the new mama will become the same way. Daddy might mix white powder into the new mama’s food, too. So, Emma doesn’t eat food.
I want to protect the new mama.”
Rachel was stunned. Emma wasn’t rejecting her; she was trying to protect her. A five-year-old girl had been desperately refusing food to protect her stepmother.
“Emma, thank you for telling me,” Rachel said, hugging the trembling girl. “You’re truly a brave child. I’m going to make a phone call.”
“To who?” Emma asked anxiously.
“The police,” Rachel answered without hesitation. “We have to tell them everything before Daddy comes back.”
The police arrived 40 minutes later. Two detectives listened calmly as Rachel explained the situation while holding Emma on her lap.
“Emma,” one detective knelt down, “can you tell us what you saw?”
Emma gathered her courage. “Daddy put white powder in the previous mama’s food every day. He took small bags out of his desk drawer in his study.”
Early the next morning, a search team with a warrant arrived at the house.
At 10:00 a.m., a detective called Rachel at the hotel where she and Emma were staying. “Mrs. Harrison, Emma’s testimony appears to be correct.
Large quantities of powerful sleeping pills and tranquilizers were found in Michael Harrison’s study. We also found his former wife’s diary in a hidden safe.”
Rachel gasped. It was the first time she had heard the name of Michael’s previous wife, Jennifer.
The diary’s contents were shocking. In the last few months of her life, Jennifer recorded feeling abnormal drowsiness and consciousness disorders after meals. One entry read, “Michael has been making my meals more often.
After eating, I always become abnormally sleepy… Emma looks at me with worry. This child might know something. If something happens to me, please protect Emma.”
“There was another important discovery,” the detective continued.
“Correspondence with life insurance companies was found on Michael’s computer. Jennifer’s death benefit was $500,000. Furthermore, it was discovered that he had taken out similar high-value life insurance for you shortly after your marriage.”
Rachel’s body shook with fear.
Without Emma’s courageous testimony, there might have been a second victim. “Michael Harrison will be arrested on suspicion of murder as soon as he returns from his business trip,” the detective confirmed. Michael’s trial attracted great attention.
Charged with premeditated murder for insurance money, he continued to deny all charges. However, faced with Emma’s testimony, Jennifer’s diary, and the physical evidence, the jury’s verdict was clear. Michael Harrison was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Six months later, Rachel’s formal adoption of Emma was completed. That day, they made a small celebratory meal together. “I want to eat the real hamburgers that the previous mama made for me,” Emma said.
“The delicious hamburgers she made before Daddy came.”
The hamburgers they made together weren’t perfect, but Emma opened her mouth wide and bit into one. “It’s delicious!” her face lit up. “Rachel Mama’s hamburgers are the most delicious in the world!”
Hearing those words, Rachel almost cried.
“Emma,” she murmured that night before Emma fell asleep, “thank you for protecting me.”
“We protected each other,” Emma smiled with satisfaction. Now, Emma is eight years old. She goes to school energetically, and mealtime has become the most enjoyable time for both of them.
Their new family is bound together not by blood, but by true love and trust—a strong bond that can overcome any difficulty.
