The Perfect Emma

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Emma Mabel

Emma kept her eyes glued to the table. Grayson had been allowed to walk her in but, like he predicted, he had to leave the room. She tapped her fingers against the table nervously. Though Emma knew in her mind she was safe, she couldn't help but be nervous. Aaron was a cop and, at this rate, the only cop she trusted was Grayson.

Yet, here she was. She hesitantly glanced up every now and then and peered around the room She noted that the room was definitely an interrogation room - since it seemed to have one way glass.

The door squeaked while opening, which caused Emma to jump. She widened her eyes slightly in surprise and watched as a woman entered the room with a soft yet sympathetic smile on her face. She made her way over to Emma and sat down across from Emma.

"Hi, Emma." The woman spoke. Emma glanced up hesitantly and watched her. Her voice was calming, which was nice. Though Emma was still scared of the woman she wasn't nearly as scared as she thought she was going to be. "My name is Hannah." She remained quiet, almost as if waiting for Emma to say something. She didn't. "I'm going to ask you a few questions - is that okay with you, Emma?"

Emma nodded her head and fiddled her thumbs together slightly. She pulled her hands off of the table and rested them on her lap. Grayson told her that they would be asking questions - specifically about Aaron. "Okay," She eventually said.

Lifting her head up, Emma did her best to act confident. She wasn't in the slightest. Though she sat up straight, her eyes flickered around nervously and her foot bounced. "We're going to take it nice and slow. If you need to take a break, that's okay." Hannah said with a nod to her head. "Why don't we start back from the very beginning. Just... tell me what you can remember."

Emma blinked her eyes and glanced down towards her lap. Thinking back - all the way to the day that Aaron took her was surprisingly not as hard as she thought it would be. Talking about it made Emma almost feel... disconnected. Like it was an experience that happened to someone else, not her. She continued staring at her lap, feeling like her eyes glazed over as she spoke.

Like Hannah wanted, Emma started from the beginning. She talked about how Aaron had snuck up while she was looking at the sky and kidnapped her. She explained that Aaron cut her hair and dyed it brown, insisting that Emma not call herself Emma Mabel anymore but Emily Matthews. In addition, she explained all of the strict rules that Aaron had in place for her. Emma backtracked and began to explain some of the punishments that he would give her if she did something wrong - like the scar on her cheek and the burn on her arm. She also explained how he had cameras placed in the basement so that every move she made was monitored. Hannah seemed interested in that, questioning if anything was recorded, to which Emma shrugged her shoulders. She didn't know.

However, though Hannah was upset by most of the things Emma had said about Aaron, she took a particular interest on the story about how Emma received the burn on her arm. "Detective Todd was in the house, yes?" Hannah questioned, doing her best to keep her face relatively neutral.

Emma nodded her head. "Yeah." She said, absentmindedly rubbing the burn on her arm. She placed ointment on it earlier this morning but the soothing effect was wearing off. "Aaron was mad because I called 911 earlier in the day and put him at risk... so Aaron burned me with the pan I cooked chicken with and decided to call Detective Todd over to make sure he stayed on his good side."

Hannah nodded her head, rubbing her hands together in thought against the table. "The 911 call... why didn't you ask for additional help, if I can ask that?"

Bouncing her foot slightly, Emma nodded her head saying that she could - though she already did. "Aaron said that... that the police already know about me being with him. That they wouldn't do anything... and I didn't want to get more hurt."