i think it's love | ethma

thirteen

Emma expects that the attempted murderer will be caught. What she doesn't expect, is that Ethan would be a suspect.

Emma finds that out when she accidentally overhears an argument Will's father is having with her mother. She can't help but lurk, curious as to what they're talking about. And then she's shocked. Because he is blaming Sophia for not having a better handle on those kids from the hood she took in.

Emma is furious.

Sophia later tells her to be cautious of Ethan, and that's the last straw. She whips around to look at her mother. "You can't seriously tell me you think it was Ethan."

She watches Emma solemnly. "We don't know that, Emma. It could have been. No one knows where he was today, he wasn't in class, he wasn't on campus— so far he doesn't have a solid alibi."

"A solid— " Emma scoffs and shakes her head. "An alibi? Mom, you adopted them. Aren't you supposed to have faith in him?"

"He's lived here three years. Maybe we don't know him as well as we thought," Sophia reiterates. "I'm not saying he definitely did it, Emma, but we have to let them investigate."

Emma can do nothing but continue shaking her head in disgust. "You took them in to win your mayoral campaign, and now that that's all over, you don't care what happens to them?"

"I care what happens to him," Sophia protests.

"No," Emma shouts. "You don't. You're always too busy with the job that taking them in got you!"

Sophia glares, folding her arms. "Like it or not, the Dolans would have been in far worse hands if it wasn't for me. We did the right thing."

Emma takes a step forward, into her mother's face. "You did the right thing for the wrong reasons," she hisses. "That doesn't absolve you of guilt."

She's walking away when she hears her mother's voice, and it's small. "Is that really what you think of me?"

Emma takes her time answering. She's never heard that regretful tone of voice from Sophia before. "It's what I know," Emma says clearly, and walks out of the room without a second glance.

She'll apologize later.

She goes to visit Will the next day. He's awake now, and trying his best to crack as many bad jokes as he can in order to stop Emma from 'flooding the room with tears and drowning them both', and she laughs and hugs him gently as she can in order not to hurt him any further.

"Do you know who it was?" she asks quietly, at some point.

He shrugs. "No. They stabbed me in the back. Literally. And it's all kind of a blur. The police already grilled me on this, you know," he smiles at her. "I don't know who it was."

She smiles back but she's thinking hard. "Okay."

this is sooo bad im sorry school is eating my creativity :((