I felt Dr Tate slacken his grip and I took the opportunity to get free of him, racing past my stepfather and into the bedroom, every thought imaginable running through my mind.
Please let her be okay, please let her be okay...
Emma still lay lifeless on the bed, but there was no blood to be seen. I hurried to her side, pulling her limp body into my arms as I scanned her for further injuries. An officer came in behind me and knelt beside us.
“You okay, ma’am?” he asked, looking to me.
“Yes,” I nodded erratically, clinging Emma to me, tears starting to stream down my face. “But her ... I don’t know ... please” My words were coming out a bumbling mess, hysteria well and truly starting to set in, I just couldn’t imagine life without her ... not my Emma!
Through my blurry vision I could make out him nodding to me, his hands moving expertly over Emma’s limp body as he worked to check her vitals.
I was vaguely aware of my stepfather and Dr Tate being read their rights in the next room but all I wanted was for Emma to wake up, to tell me everything was okay, that no one would hurt us again...
I realized the officer had stilled and was speaking to me, his hand on my shoulder as he tried to coax me out of my emotional reverie.
“I’m sorry?” I asked, taking in his reassuring smile with dawning hope.
“She’s going to be okay, ma’am,” he said. “She looks to have passed out but the ambulance is on its way and they will check you both over properly. Do you understand what I am saying?”
I nodded slowly, the words “she’s going to be okay” bouncing around my brain until they finally registered, a surge of relief washing over me and leaving me fuzzy.
“We’ll need to take a report from you, but it can wait until you have both been properly checked over. Until then, I suggest you stay in here.”
Again, I nodded, grateful that he didn’t want me to move, nothing would have made me leave her side right now.
“Look, that’s my daughter in there!” I heard my stepfather bellow from the next room, his desperation sending his voice hoarse. “If you just go and get her she will explain that there has been a misunderstanding.”
A misunderstanding — not likely!
“Abi! Abi!” he called, “Please get out here and tell them.”
“He’s right,” Dr Tate cut in. “She’ll explain all.”
I saw red then. The fact that they thought I would seriously bail them out after everything they had done to me ... to Emma ... and they had the nerve to declare me mentally unfit!
I settled Emma’s body back on the bed as I got to my feet, my eyes unable to leave her just yet.
“She’s really okay?” I asked the officer, the nagging doubt still there.
“Yes, she’ll come to soon enough,” he said, his brow creasing with concern as he added, “you know you don’t need to go in there?”
I looked from him to the doorway. “I need to do this.”
Striding to the doorway, I entered the living area just in time to see them cuffing my stepfather, his hands forced behind his back, his head bowed. Dr Tate was already cuffed and being escorted out by an armed officer. He looked back just as I appeared, the glimmer of relief bright in his eyes as he said, “Here she is now, look, Edward.”
My stepfather’s head flew up, his face showing a similar glow. “Abi, darling, thank God, please tell them,” he said, his head nodding to the officers stood around.
I really couldn’t believe they thought me so easily led.
His eyes flitted about the room at my continued silence, his panic swift to resurface. “Tell them!”
“Tell them what?” I said coldly. “How you had Emma beaten to a pulp or how you paid a doctor to sedate me and declare me mentally unsound? Or how about the fact you stole my inheritance?”
He froze, the deathlike pallor to his face making him look every one of his advancing years.
“Yes, don’t you worry, I’ll make sure they know absolutely everything.”
Satisfied that I had seen and said enough, I turned to re-enter the bedroom.
