❛𝐃𝐎𝐍'𝐓 𝐁𝐄 𝐒𝐂𝐀𝐑𝐄𝐃, 𝐈'𝐌 𝐉𝐔𝐒𝐓 𝐀 𝐌𝐔𝐑𝐃𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐑...❜ | 𝐍𝐨.𝟐

Chapter 14- Unbeatable...

I hate this. I hate Emma feeling like utter shit and not being able to offer any kind of help.

The only thing that purely rests on my mind is the dreams she's been having. Since my mothers death departure, i haven't had a single reappearance from her.

Not a damn thing.

The notion that i'd have a child both excites and frightens me at the same time. Max was 2 when i met him, i don't know how to take care of a baby!

I ponder in thought as i'm sat on Emma's home desk beside her. "Lauren?"

"Beg your pardon?"

"I said do you think there's any link between Rebecca and the murder case?"

"Why would there be any link?"

"Because, Addison Carter..." Emma pulls out a photo from the early 2000s, "Was Rebecca's mother, her maiden name being Carter, and she was your mum's divorce lawyer before she died, Rebecca took over her firm, and then you two got married...like we've been discussing for the past thirty minutes. What's the matter?"

"Is it selfish that the only thing i care about right now is the fact that you're having dreams about my mother and i'm not?" Emma folds up the case and turns to me with an apologetic look.

"I wish i could give them to you and not me, honest. All they seem to do is confuse me..."

"What does she look like in them?"

"Her hair is curled, really long, down to her torso. She has the most alluring white dress on, and for some reason we always seem to meet in this milky-white room that doesn't have any doors, windows, or curtains. It's like it disappears into nothingness in a way. There's an albino coloured block in the middle we sit down on and have a chat, before i get woken up. The dreams always end with her walking in the opposite direction, and if i stare for long enough, she fades away."

It was comforting in a sense. My mother never got to meet my first girlfriend, but it bothers me more she didn't get to meet Emma. "I wish..."

"What, L?"

I shake my head out of that state, " 'I wish' doesn't get us anywhere in life. It's just us teasing ourselves because it never will happen. Come on, talk to me more about the case." i spent the next thirty minutes sitting on the same thoughts about my maternal figure over and over again.

It's around 7:30pm, and i wrap my knuckles around Emma's home office door with a mug of chamomile tea in my hands.

"Is it safe to come in?"

"You're only allowed in if you have an ice-cold beer from the bottom of the fridge with my name on it."

I chuckle slightly, "I brought tea?"

"Mm, caffeine would be ideal. Gimmie." i take a liberating seat on her white oak desk as she takes a long sip. "Any closer?"

"No...i just- i can't figure out how your mum died and how to pin it on your dad..." completely ignoring anything she's saying, i lean forward intuitively.

"Y'know...when we were in Oxford...i couldn't help but think how sexy you looked when you held that badge in your hand." she turns to me slowly with a quirked eyebrow.

"Oh, really?"

I nod in response, "Yes, DCI Alton..."

Emma's eyes flare with exhilaration, a twinkle among the blue of them. "It's not fair to turn me on when i'm supposed to be working."

"Tsk, where's the fun in that?" I tug her chin upward towards me, locking my lips with hers.

I reach my hands into her desk draw to pull out a pair of her work handcuffs, dangling them with my middle finger. "What do you say we forget about the world for a minute and have some fun?"

It's clear through her eyesight she's eager to take me up on my offer, but instead she whisks the metal away from my body and closes the drawer snap shut. "Maybe later, but right now not only do i have to solve this case, i've got to find someone to take Max to the park tomorrow."

"I could do it?"

"I would let you, apart from the fact i know you could shred Luka's body into a million pieces if he said a single out of line comment. Same goes for everyone else in my life."

A few minutes on, we hear a subtle knock at the door, "Come in!"

Max peers his head around the corner with Zoo-Zoo in his hands and a sorrow look. "Hey, mate. What's up?"

He says nothing but curls up on Emma's lap and places his head on her chest.

"Mummy, why is dad back?"

Instead of tensing up, Emma replies, "Y'know how mummy said dad was going away for a little bit after doing something bad?" he nods, "Dad is back from the place he was sent to for doing that bad thing."

"Did dad go to prison?" the look in Emma's eyes long for Max to be a toddler again, eating pasta and bouncing in his high chair without a care in the world.

"Sweetheart, i always told myself i didn't want to be the kind of mummy who sugarcoates everything, but you're very very young and i don't want you to learn about things you shouldn't be learning about until you're a bit older. Mummy doesn't want to lie to you, but i also don't want you to be left out. Yes, dad did go to prison, but you don't have to worry about that because dad loves you and wants to be with you for a little bit."

"I don't wanna see him..."

The relief in my chest disguises itself pretty well. "Why not, kiddo?"

"Cuz mummy doesn't like him and says he was bad..."

"Sweetheart, if mummy could control whether or not you saw dad, i'd do whatever you wanted. But this is something we have to do. Y'know how you hate cleaning your bedroom, but you gotta?"

He tilts his head upwards and down, understanding but not appealing to the outcome. Not long after, Max goes down for a nap, leaving me and Emma alone again.

After emotional exhaustion after emotional exhaustion, the number of times Emma has done the telltale sign of raking her hands through her hair, sighing deeply and holding her head in her hands, it amazes me how she swings her legs out of bed every day.

"I know it's a long shot, but are we getting any closer?"

"No...not at all...i do have a question though."

"Go for it."

"Where was Rhett by the time you were with Victor? You said it was bedtime and you snuck downstairs."

"I don't specifically remember where he was. When i went back to bed, he wasn't there. I asked him where he went but he didn't answer me. Why?"

"...no reason. Could you start dinner? I'll be down in 20."

I close Emma's office door left feeling slightly suspicious. What does she have up her sleeve?

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Thank you for reading!

Only 5 chapters left to go! Can you guess what's going to happen during them?

The next chapter is something i've worked on for days. I can't wait to share it with you all!

Keep reading to find out what happens <33