Just Like Her

Chapter 82

Tom

I propped my head against the cool metal of the doorway as relief shuddered through me.

Safe.

She was sitting in the chair by the window, her knees tucked tightly into her chest, as Alice dozed in the nearby bed.

I closed my eyes briefly as the thrumming of adrenaline slowly began to dissipate. In an instant my eyes flew open again as if to confirm it was true.

She's safe.

I slid my phone out from my pants pocket to update the security team when faint scuff of footsteps briskly turned the corner.

"Forgive me your highness, but visiting hours are over."

I glanced over my shoulder at the petite nurse, her severe salt-and-pepper bun and pristinely ironed scrubs giving no indication of the long shift she had likely endured.

Emma must have stirred at the sound of her voice because she was suddenly standing in front of me.  She looked much the same as she had this morning, except her eyes were rimmed red.

A tight knot twisted in my chest as I had to actively fight the urge to pull her into a tight embrace.

The nurse smiled and nodded towards Emma in way of familiar greeting. "Perhaps tomorrow you and Alice can spend some time writing."

Emma's lips twisted painfully in attempted smiled.

The nurse murmured something else about "wrappings" as Emma silently slipped between us and down the corridor.  

My voice sounded foreign to me as a croaked 'thank you' before jogging after Emma.

*          *          *

Having missed her getting into the lift, Emma was stalking toward the electric front doors when I finally managed to catch her.

"Ems, there will be paparazzi out there—"

"Who gives a damn," she bit out.  "They'll post whatever they bloody want anyways."

I swallowed what felt like a razor lodged in the esophagus as the images of her snogging another man forced their way into my vision, flashing before my eyes. I shook my head forcefully, as if to be rid of the negatives imprinted on the back of my eyelids. 

"Emma, wait I didn't bring the car—"

"Great," she retorted. "We'll take the Tube."

"To where?"

With a cry, Emma whirled around just as my fingers managed to take hold of her elbow. She threw her arms wildly, releasing herself of me, and staggered several steps backward.

"I don't know!" She cried. Her eyes were more wild than her limbs, wide-eyed and bulging as they desperately searched the room around us.

"Doesn't bloody matter! Anywhere I go—they'll be there to snap a picture, to call me names, to—" A sob welled up in her throat but she somehow managed to choke it down. "There's nowhere to go, don't you see that! Anywhere I try—he'll find me! He'll never leave me alone, I-I'll never be free!"

The sob escaped her this time. It began at her knees, which wobbled as if threatening to buckle, and racked her already straining lungs before bursting from her quivering lips.

She clamped her hands over her mouth, but it did nothing to lessen the cry of the wale or the heaving of her breathe. It was when she clamped her right hand over her left that I finally noticed them.