Tiny Crown

Chapter 26

Mr Miranda awkwardly stood in the doorway as the two pulled away from their hug.
“Richard,” said Kat, finally realising the man existed. Kat walked over to him and kissed his cheek before pulling him into a hug. “Thank you, so much.”
“It’s the least I could do,” he said, smiling at her.

Emilia stared at the two, she’d only seen her aunt kiss someone’s cheek when she was dating whoever it was.
“I’m just…” Mr Miranda turned to Emilia. “I’m glad your safe now, I called the cops and told them, they said they’d send someone out as soon as possible.”
“Thank you,” said Kat, smiling at him. There was something about her tone of voice and the way that she smiled at him.

“Are you two together?” she asked. Mr Miranda hadn’t asked for her aunt’s address and he had said that he was visiting his girlfriend and he had slipped up with what he was saying. Emilia knew the answer as both of them shared a look. “Right, okay, my aunt and my music teacher are dating.”

“Emilia,” sighed her aunt. “I know it’s weird and maybe a bit difficult for you but we were together in high school and he wanted to help find you and help me. And things kinda got… well, yeah, we’re dating.” Emilia furrowed her brow and immediately decided she didn’t want to know.

Her aunt shuffled Emilia into the living room and they both sat down.
“I need to talk to you about something, before the police get here and that,” said Kat as she held Emilia’s hands in her own. A sickening feeling welled up inside her.
“What is it?”

“Emilia,” started Aunt Kat. They heard the door shut and Emilia could see Mr Miranda head into the kitchen. “Listen, I know this isn’t a great time to tell you but I want to tell you sooner rather than later.”
Dread pulled her stomach down, something was wrong. “What is it?” she asked quietly.
“Your mother… Penny, she…” Aunt Kat took a deep breath. “She passed away, three days ago... on Friday at half past one in the afternoon.”
“No,” was the first thing Emilia said.

No.

She couldn’t be gone. Her mother couldn’t be dead.

Emilia couldn’t stop crying as her aunt wrapped her arms around her and pulled her into a hug again. Emilia tried to pull the ring off of her finger which her mom had given her but it wasn’t there. She was certain she had been wearing it that morning.

She couldn’t be dead. She couldn’t be.

Last Friday…

Three days ago…

That had been when Nathan had stopped her from escaping and Evan had fetched her medication.

If she had left…

“Mom died thinking I was missing.”
“She went knowing you’d be safe, somehow.”
“I’ll never get to see her again.”
Aunt Kat shook her head. “None of us will. But we do get to say goodbye to her.”

They were interrupted by three knocks at the door.