Guardian ✓

safe

EMMA COULDN'T MEET HIS EYES WHEN HE ENTERED.

She had woken up to nurse standing on her bedside, checking the heart monitor. It reminded her of the first time her mother had taken her to a hospital when she was very young. She remembered snippets of trees passing by in a blur. She'd been so in awe that the memory stuck with her even after all these years. Probably the only memory because the rest of her childhood was a painful blur.

"Your mother has handed over her rights of you to Crawford. You won't be having any touch with the Canalis family until you're eighteen. Mathias is waiting outside to bring your stuff to your new home. Is there anything in particular you'd like?" Noah finally spoke. His tone, if that was even possible, was colder. Harsher.

He probably did not want her to live with his family. That's probably why she hadn't met her dad as well.

Except, Emma found that along with the humiliation of being a burden on her step-brother for the next near, there was a feeling of freedom. As if someone had been suffocating her before and they'd finally let go. Grown tired. It felt nice.

"Um, there isn't much, sir. Sir Mathias won't have to be gone for too long. Although, I'd really like if you could get my copy of Hansel and Gretel-"

"Anything else?" He interrupted sharply, voice thick.

She shook her head quickly, looking away when she felt eyes on her face. He knew. He knew about the scars. She wanted to die.

He was probably disgusted.

Emma shuddered, closing her eyes as the monitor started to beep loudly. She gritted her teeth before clamping them on her lower lip.

"Come back. It's okay, Emma. Come back..." She heard someone murmuring softly. Noah. She gave a jerky nod before taking a few deep breaths.

There was a moment of awkwardness before he cleared his throat.

"You'll have to go to school here but we'll have to keep you out of the public eye." Hidden. "It's good that your mother didn't enlist you anywhere. Your father has a lot of enemies who are better off not knowing that he has an heir." He said as he sat down on the couch near the window that overlooked the city.

If it hadn't been for the heart monitor - which Emma still did not know why it was here - and the IV drip, her room could have passed as a hotel room from the pictures she saw online. She hadn't ever slept in a room that big. It made her feel guilty for some reason.

So instead, she processed what he said. She had lived inside her mother's house since she was born. Except now it would be better.

Kevin won't be there.

And she'd always wanted to get an education instead of learning everything off the Internet and teaching herself. She'd seen too many videos on student life.

She wanted that as well. It made her happy.

"Your test results showed that you can graduate this year. A tutor will be coming where you would live from now on to help you with that." Despite being so composed, it seemed like he was afraid of saying the wrong thing. Or perhaps, saying too much.

Emma didn't mind. Who would she tell anyway? She'd only made one friend online when she was fourteen and her mother had found out. Gabrielle Canalis made sure Emma never made the same mistake again.

But now her mother was gone. And Kevin as well. No more fear. She'll never go to that room of horror again. The thought made her want to smile but she didn't. Noah was probably angry at her.

So she decided to be brave and speak. It wasn't like she could go back and maintain whatever dignity she had in front of her step brother again. But she had a whole year before she turned eighteen to prove that she wasn't that bad.

"I get that you're angry," she began cautiously in case he lashed out, "and I am so sorry. The last thing I want to do is intrude. I promise I'll keep to myself. I can cook and clean as well until I can be on my own and have to leave. I'll keep quiet. You won't even know I'm there, sir. M-my dad probably pressured you into letting me leave my mamma's house and I'm sorry that's taking up your time. Really, I am." She licked her lips. She didn't really know what she was saying. Was she even making sense? "It's just that my mother, um-" she paused, not knowing how to phrase her next sentence, "she has this boyfriend who isn't very...kind. He isn't very kind to me." Emma closed her eyes feeling a ghost of his fingers around her neck in the room of horror. "It's scary."

Keeps me up at night. I haven't had a peaceful sleep in years. He's taken everything I had left. She didn't say anything else, focusing on the white duvet that covered her lap.

"How-" Noah stopped, closing his eyes before reopening them, "how long has Kevin been at your mother's house?"

Emma cut a sorry sight, hunched over like she was trying to disappear into void.

"Since I was fifteen, sir."

"Is his last name Hawthorne? The tarantula-"

Before he could finish his sentence, Emma flinched violently before curling into herself as much as she could.

"Sorry, sir." She apologised shakily.

Noah changed the subject.

"And before that there were other boyfriends, yes?"

Emma squeezed her eyes shut, thankful that the curtain of her hair provided some sort of shield.

"Yes, sir."

Noah nodded even though she couldn't see. Emma hadn't looked up since he came it. And for that, Noah was grateful. He wasn't sure how he'd be able to meet her eyes and keep his composure.

"I have a meeting now," he stood up as he spoke, adjusting his suit, "Mathias will take you home. And I'll see you at breakfast."

"Thank you, sir." No one had ever sounded as genuine and grateful as Emma.

It felt like her words were going to destroy him.

"And Emma?"

She looked up for the first time, meeting his eyes. They, surprisingly, were not cold and unwelcoming. There was an emotion within them that she could not place.

"Yes, sir?"

There was a strange sadness in the way he looked at her. It made her want to cry and beg him to not go. It had been too long that she'd been in a presence of a male who hadn't touched her and made her feel like an object of amusement. It had been too long.

"You're safe now."

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