Emily's Protectors

Chapter 27: The Study ✔

Emily woke up while Alistar and Gregory talked, lying very still, concentrating on keeping her breath steady. She smiled when she heard Alistar say, "I don't know. The last two days almost broke me and I can't imagine waking up and not having Emily there" But slowly, the smile faded, frowning when he started talking about the future, was their future really so hopeless? Emily hadn't given herself any time to think about anything except surviving the next threat in her life. 

Gregory said: "Whatever you think is best, we will stand by you."

Emily could not stay quiet anymore, sitting up and crying with a hoarse voice full of emotion, "No!" 

Gregory cleared his throat. "I'll just give you two some privacy" before turning around and leaving the study, making sure the door was closed behind him.

"You do not get to make decisions like that for us. If you don't want to be with me, then it's fine, but you do not get to decide what's best for us!" Emily shouted, getting off Alistar's lap, folding the blanket around her body. 

"Emily, please, you must see this is for the best. You will never have a normal life with me." Alistar tried to reach for Emily, but she stood one step back. "Hell, I couldn't even go to you when you needed me most today!" 

"So what, Alistar? You did the best you could do. If we were a normal couple and you were away on a business trip and I had an emergency, what would you have done?"

"I don't see what that has to do with anything?" Alistar frowned.

"Answer the question, if you were human and away on a business trip halfway across the country and I had an emergency, what would you have done?" 

"Called a friend or family to help until I could get back to you" hearing Alistar's answer, Emily smiled at him, taking a step closer. "And that is exactly what you did today. You couldn't be there, so you send the closest thing you have to family to help me" standing in front of Alistar, she put her hands on both sides of his face. "I don't want a normal life. I just want you."

"It's easy to say that now but what if you are older?" encircling her with his arms, Alistar pulled her into his lap. "Then we cross that bridge when we get to it. This relationship scares me just as much as it scares you," Emily answered, looking up at Alistar. 

Lying back onto his chest Emily put her feet up to rest on his leg. "I think I might have to share with you my life story before I came here and met Ben and Anna." 

Slowly Emily began telling him, "My real Dad died when I was six years old. He was awesome, I can't remember much, but I remember him always calling me his little princess. I remembered being loved. We lived on a small farm not far from town. I can't really remember my mom from that time. There is a lady in my memories that loved to laugh and was warm and loving, but if that was my mom, I don't know, not the mom I had later in life in any case." 

Looking up at Alistar, she gave a slight smile before she continued. "So when my dad died in a tractor accident, my mom was broken, her sister came to stay with us the first month to help out, but she had to get back to her own life. The farm life which my mom loved before the accident was too much for her. Not six months after the accident, she got married to Jack, not even a month after she met him"

"I'm not sure when the beatings started, there was still wedding cake in the fridge. I remember because that was the first time Jack raised his hand to me, I came home after school and took a piece without asking for permission. Mom, by then, already had her first blue eye" Taking a moment to gather her thoughts, Emily continued. "The more Jack drank, the more violent he became. Anything and everything was enough reason to set him off. Walking too loudly in my room when he had a hangover, not having milk in the house because he drank up all the money. We weren't safe for a minute. Monthly beatings became weekly beatings and just before I ran away, we were down to daily."