Cats In the Cradle

54. Daniel

I was planning on ending the story after Emma's birthday, honestly. And I know people hate open-ended stories, but it's kinda fun to imagine where the characters might end up as you watch them progress/regress.

But a few people wanted to know what would happen if Daniel met Alessandro. So I'm not sure if I'll do another chapter from Emma's POV. Most likely just this one, one more, and then an epilogue.

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Our first date—as friends—went flawlessly. Emma really liked the Korean food, and I really liked fucking her with my fingers, just like old times.

The cake was really good too.

And it was really affirming to know that Chris actually worked closely with Alessandro, and he didn't seem to think we had anything in common. My mom seemed strangely concerned about me lately. More than usual. She kept pestering me about going to therapy, saying she feels like everything that happened with Sienna and the cult and Emma's assault were affecting me more than I realized.

She might've been right.

I constantly kept tabs on Emma. We spoke daily, if not multiple times a day, and I was prone to immediately dropping everything I was doing if she didn't answer my calls or texts. I was thinking about just renting a house in Aunt Lara's community, because the 2-hour drive was killing me.

And now that she was in school, going out more, I felt almost crippling anxiety at times, picturing some asshole trying to touch her or take her away from me again.

One tiny part of my brain told me it would be so much easier to keep her safe if she just lived with me and stayed home, tucked away, with all the doors locked. Like I told her to do back when we lived in The House community.

Mr. Augustus suggested several times that I should just move her back in to the community, and I could still come and go as I pleased if I continued to work at AFS. Despite our rocky past, he really had become a mentor and somewhat of a father figure to me. Emma and Aunt Lara seemed to love him.

Kayden and my mom thought it was strange that he was still associated with the church, and I was working for him again. And that was understandable. I didn't necessarily want to be too closely associated with the church either. I found myself drawn to some of their principles and not so much to others. And it was extremely grating that they adored Alessandro so much. I was tired of hearing about him.

But I had to admit that it was a little tempting, imagining Emma back in her long dresses that completely covered her body, with her tiny, lacy lingerie underneath. She wouldn't be allowed to leave the house or speak to anyone else without my permission, and I'd keep a close eye on her, keeping her safely locked away. Now that Orion was dead, the community did seem a little safer. And I know she still missed her family.

But she was thriving in the real world. She got her GED surprisingly quickly, and she was starting community college soon. She'd finally decided that she wanted to study wedding/event planning, and she was excited and so passionate about soaking up all the knowledge she possibly could.

At some point, her therapist suggested that she keep things strictly platonic with me, since it was apparently causing her some emotional distress when I occasionally fucked her or ate her out and then affirmed that we were still friends.

Even though that's what she said she wanted.

So we went back to only being best friends. Platonic friends with platonic dates and occasional platonic sleepovers, but definitely no platonic feelings on my end.

But it was alright. I could deal with it. I had plenty of pictures and videos of us to get me through particularly difficult nights. As long as I could keep constant tabs on her, she told me everything about the things she did and the people she met, and she wasn't fucking anyone else or trying to hide her mark when she wore revealing clothing, we'd be fine.