Smoke and Mirrors (DE)

50. Snakes in the grass

" No—no—no—no," Emily repeated to herself hysterically, covering her face in her hands as she rocked back and forth on the floor of a random supply closet.

" Emmy—," Richard started, trying to help her off the ground.

" DO NOT TOUCH ME!" Emily screamed, making Richard snatch his hand back quickly.

He let out a dramatic breath, wiping his hand down his face. Though he was home free, he never intended on seeing Emily ever again because he could never explain his absence. He'd come to terms that he would never see her again a long time ago and he was okay with it— but trying to maintain a healthy distance with Grace was a foolish decision but he couldn't help it, thats his baby.

Emily had passed out twice in twenty minutes since seeing him and refuses to believe he's really there— but how can you believe someone is really in front of you after going to their funeral and having thought they've been dead for the past almost thirty years.

" Emily you need to get it tog—,"

" Get it together!?" Emily shouted tearfully. " What is even going on!"

Emily was in a severe state of shock and denial and was having an extremely hard time processing this— the love of her life that she'd mourned for the past thirty years now stood before her very much alive and well and was still handsome as ever. The feeling of despair and anguish began to resurface looking at him, remembering the blow to the heart the police delivered the night they knocked on her door to tell her the news— remembering the way she dropped to her knees as if every breath had been sucked from her very body, remembering the way she screamed in agony thinking she'd never see her first love ever again.

Emily stood up aggressively reaching for the collar of his button up.

" What the fuck are you doing?" He asked as she tried to rip his shirt open.

She popped the first two buttons of his button up and pulled his shirt to the side revealing her name inked in shaky cursive over the right side of his chest near his heart that had now faded slightly— a crappy tattoo he'd gotten done at someone's house for thirty dollars and a dime baggy of weed when he was nineteen.

Tears began to well in her eyes as she stared at it, before looking up at him and meeting the hazy greenish-brown eyes their daughter inherited from him— the ones she'd secretly fallen in love with staring at in their twelfth grade English class, smacking him across the face.

Richard clenched his jaw, his nostrils flaring as his cheek stung violently, his tan skin taking on a hue of red as blood rushed to the area. Emily raised her hand to smack him again but he caught her by the wrist squeezing it tightly. " You only get one hit,"

" Fuck you!" She spat, snatching her hand away. " How could you do that to me— how could you do that to us!" Emily shouted as tears continued to fill the brims of her dark brown eyes and stream down her cheeks. " We needed you!"

" We don't have time for this shit right now Em! Our daughter—,"

" My daughter," Emily corrected, her tone challenging. " And don't you dare go anywhere near her,"

" She doesn't fucking recognize me anyways Emily! I see my daughter every day and she doesn't even know who I am! You're foul as fuck and you know that! She's my child too!" Richard yelled, his voice quivering.

" I did what I had to do to protect us, I didn't want her to know you! I didn't want her to know any of this shit!"

" Good fucking parenting job because she's with someone worse than me," Richard spat spitefully.