Lost & Found || H.S. [COMPLETE]

The tale of a broken girl

"Don't wanna feel another touch.
Don't wanna start another fire.
Don't wanna know another kiss.
No other name fallin' off my lips.
Don't wanna give my heart away
To another stranger.
Or let another day begin.
Won't even let the sunlight in.
No, I'll never love again."

Song: I'll Never Love Again - Lady Gaga

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Emma wasn't sure about it. Actually, she was completely unsure about it. Patrick had only been gone for six months. And she personally didn't think that six months was an adequate amount of time to mourn the loss of her husband. Seriously. Was there a time limit to that sort of thing? Did society really expect her to just all of a sudden one day be okay that she no longer had her husband, her best friend by her side? There wasn't anyone there to get her through the sleepless, lonely nights and it was crippling.

But of course, her mother and sister were only trying to help when they suggested she go to therapy. Therapy didn't sound all that bad to her, it was the type of therapy they proposed she go to. It was more or less a self-help group for widows. Emma was automatically opposed to the idea, but when they explained it focused on coping with being a single parent, she came around. Once they used her daughter in their plea, she knew she was a goner.

Madeline.

She would do absolutely anything for her five-month-old daughter. She had Patrick's big blue eyes and his blonde hair. She looked just like his baby pictures, yet she never even got to meet her father. Patrick never got to hold her or love her. He never had the chance to be the father he always dreamed of being. And that was a tragedy in itself.

When Emma got the call that Patrick was in a car accident, she felt it in her bones – the grief. When she arrived at the hospital and they told her they did everything they could, but they weren't able to revive him, she felt it settle within her. Since that day, it never left her.

She was eight months pregnant and she was alone.

Her mother and sister flew out to London on the earliest flight they could, but nothing or no one could have prepared Emma for the loneliness. She couldn't even get out of bed. The only plea from her family that she listened to was to eat, for the baby's sake. She slept for days. She didn't want to be conscious.

There wasn't much she remembered from the funeral. It was a closed casket and the rain never stopped.

After the funeral, it was decided that Emma would move back to Holmes Chapel, but she was much too pregnant to make the trip right away. So her mother stayed with her in London to help her pack up the house and to be there for her postpartum. Emma gave birth not long after the funeral. Madeline was born and Patrick wasn't there. Madeline was born and she didn't have a father.