Still…
“It’s me, Emily.And look at you, all grown up!”
He makes the mistake of reaching his arm in her direction.He’s lucky I didn’t just add to his collection of hideous scars.
“Mr.Perkins, take a seat back there.”
I gesture for him to move to a different armchair, one at the back of the plane.He does as he’s told.I sit across from Emma in facing chairs, my eyes on Perkins.
The man shrugs.“She’s always been emotional.Believe me, even as a child she was emotional.I tried to nurture that, let her be.My wife, on the other hand, couldn’t abide the snippiness.Like she’s doing now.The girls are always so emotional.”
Emma straightens.She’s not staring out the window anymore.She’s focused straight ahead, like she’s in a trance.Her face and neck have turned a splotchy red.
“Child?”I ask.“Your wife?What are you talking about?How do you know her?”
He laughs.“I was a father to her.”
CHAPTER 78
Emma
Misery.
From the top of my head to the bottom of my feet and back up to my head, I’m miserable.One living, breathing, black ball of misery.
Despair eats away at me.I can feel it gnawing at my flesh, my tissue giving way to its bite.Eating me alive.
I should have known this was going to happen.Not that the monster would appear in Declan’s plane, but that he’d show up.Somewhere.Someday.Somehow, it was bound to happen.
Right when I’m happier than I’ve ever been, the worst thing imaginable occurs.
Of course it does.How could it not?
I wasn’t put on this earth to be happy.I was made to scrape by, to eke out a life.But never thrive.
Girls like me don’t get happy endings.It’s the most important truth of all, and I forgot it.
I wring my hands until my knuckles turn white.This bastard is ruining everything for me.He’s going to open his big, evil mouth and tell Finn everything and then Finn will hate me.He’ll never want to touch me again.
No Finn.No Jasmine.No family.No Yosemite Ranch.
No love.
Nausea hits.I throw off the seatbelt and make a run for the bathroom.I shut and lock the door just before I vomit.
“Emma?Are you all right?”Finn’s on the other side of the door.
I rinse my mouth and spit into the small sink.I stare at myself in the mirror.I look sick.Panicked.Red skin.Red, bloodshot eyes.I’m looking at a woman who’s given up.
I shake my head.Blow my nose.Finn taps on the door.
“Let me in.”
I throw open the latch.
Finn gasps in shock and steps toward me, pushing me back into the lavatory.His brow is furrowed, and he looks at me questioningly.
“He’s no father to me.”
