Maybe she's... gone out,  Emma thought. Perhaps she...wanted some eggs for dinner?

It was no use. Emma knew that, in a time like this, both her brother not coming home at his usual time and her mother mysteriously disappearing were not a coincidence. 

There had  to be someone behind this.

Emma looked around once more. There was no note. Nothing to at least hint at where her mother had gone. Then she made a decision.

A decision that would change her life:

She fled from home.