SHE'S MY WIFE

Chapter 10: Ultimatums

Emilia's condition was starting to worry her. She didn't cry or ask for Zander like how she did in the hospital when she woke up. That was normal. For someone who lost her son, to be in shock was totally normal. But it was Zander's funeral. Mothers screamed for their children not to be buried. Others even jumped in the grave because they wanted to go with them. Em just stood there like a statue. If Thea believed in the paranormal stuff, she'd say her soul wasn't in her body. That's how it looked from where she was standing.

It hurt her to think she couldn't do anything for her friend. She'd seen Zander grow up. Had been there when he was born. In all honesty, she hadn't liked Emilia at first. She had been in love with Sawyer since they were kids. She'd adored and worshiped him only to find out he didn't feel the same way. On top of that, he was gay. That had been a blow, one that took a long time to understand. Finally she'd decided it was okay as long as he didn't love another woman. They made a pact, that if he ever switched sides, she would be the first person he'd go for. Stupid, but it helped her accept him. As long as she was the only woman in his life, she was okay with that.

But then he had to go and be Mother Teresa, helping some random pregnant woman. Thea had detested Emilia at first because she thought Em was trying to steal her best friend. She'd lost the chance to be with him, she couldn't lose their friendship too. She hadn't wanted to come off as a heartless bitch so she resorted to the passive aggressive way. Every chance she got, she glared at Emilia, using her eyes to tell the woman to get lost and leave them alone. Of course Emilia hadn't gotten the message. She tried to befriend her and in no time Thea was changing her opinion of her. She was kind, beautiful, fun and the first woman to ever want to be her friend.

They'd become fast friends and she'd even ended up as Zander's godmother. It truly hurt knowing that she hadn't protected him. She was trained to see these kinds of things. She should have asked some of her colleagues to watch over him. Maybe this wouldn't have happened. Maybe he wouldn't be.... dead. Spinning around, she ran away from funeral. Someone was saying something about what a good kid he was when they didn't even know him. Not like how she did. She was there when his first tooth came out and when he learnt how to walk, talk. She was there. She'd seen how sweet he could be when he wanted something and how stubborn he was when it was the opposite. She had wanted to see how he'd use his manipulative skills once he was a teenager on his father because they had already figured him out. There was still so much he needed to do.

Working in the police force meant dealing with death almost everyday. She'd seen kids younger than Zander die a cruel death. But she didn't break down the way she was doing at that moment. You'd think it was getting easier to deal with things like that until someone close to you died and you're left behind thinking 'This wouldn't have happened if I'd done something'. That was going to be her reality from that day onwards. She was going to always think that she could have prevented Zander's death if she had paid close attention to him. How many times had Emilia told her she was afraid to go back because she was scared someone would hurt him? Why had she convinced Em to go back?

"Hey, are you okay? I saw you leaving and....."

"No of course I'm not okay. Can't you see that I came here because I needed privacy?" she snapped not bothering to see who it was. The person bent down and she caught a whiff of his cologne. Preston Nash.

"It's okay to cry. You don't have to hide while doing it" for some reason, his statement infuriated her. Who said she was hiding? Was this guy so stupid that he didn't know the difference between wanting privacy and hiding?

"Please leave me alone" she said instead. It would be of no use to start an argument with him. At least not today.

"I know he was like a son to you. You were after all his godmother, although I don't understand why Max refused to make me his godfather. I think we would have made the perfect godparents. Am I right?"