Tiny Crown

Chapter 11

A few minutes later, the door opened and Emilia stared at Evan. He didn’t say anything to her, he couldn’t even look at her.
“What do you know that you’re not telling me?” she asked quietly. “About your mother and Nathan?”
“I don’t know if I should tell you,” he said. He let out a sigh and pulled at some of the curls which were by his eyes.
“Please, tell me something,” she pleaded, stepping towards him.

He finally looked her in the eyes but still said nothing. Emilia took deep breaths, the light-headedness started to come back but she had to ignore it, just for a few more minutes. He looked away, down at his arm where the scar was, before looking her in the eye again.

“My mother wants you dead.”

Emilia needed to sit down.

She leaned against the door frame and she heard his breathing falter.

“I don’t know why, all I can figure is that… you’re like me. My mother was the one yelling at me that I’d ruined everything the other day.”
“She…” Emilia trailed off. “But… I don’t…”
“I don’t understand either but if I had just called an ambulance or the police… there’s other things going on, other problems and you would have just been released and she would have tried again and… and I panicked and I brought you here. I’m sorry.”

There was desperation in his voice, mixed with some kind of honesty.

“Do you think this was… this is wrong?”
“I don’t know,” he said. “I don’t know a lot of things, I don’t even remember half of my life. But I’m sorry, I don’t know what to do.”

Emilia closed her eyes and took deep breaths in a feeble attempt to make herself feel better. She knew the information hadn’t quite set in properly. And she dreaded the moment it would finally sink in.

“I’ll be downstairs if you need me.”

Emilia just nodded as she carried on taking deep breaths.

As soon as he was out of sight, Emilia felt the tears on her cheeks. She slid down to the floor and pulled her legs to her chest. Evan’s mother wanted her dead. Nathan, who was her friend and she couldn’t remember, his mother wanted her dead.

Why?

What had she ever done to anyone?

She didn’t understand.

She couldn’t understand what she had done to anyone. Even if she had done something, she couldn’t remember. What if she had done something? What if she had done something horrible that no one else knew and now not even she knew?

At some point, the tears had stopped falling, mostly because Emilia hadn’t got any tears left to cry. As she stood up, her head felt fuzzy and she grabbed onto the door frame for support. Her heart was beating fast, hitting against her rib cage.

Should she call out for help?

The only help she’d get would be Evan.

She wasn’t sure how long it had taken for it to subside but as soon as it had, she headed to the bathroom to wash her face and then grabbed the plate with the cold, abandoned toast on to take it downstairs.

As she set the plate down on the kitchen counter, black spots started appearing in her vision. Emilia bit her lip, wishing it would go away.

It didn’t.