CALAMITY (h.s)

NINE.

Whatever her dad stole from him obviously meant a lot to him. But whatever he was doing today may have meant more.

When Emaline, Jo and Liam arrived at her apartment, things immediately felt off.

"That's weird," Emaline commented while she dug through her drawers for her favorite pair of pajama pants.

Jo crouched to Emaline's level to see what the issue was, "What's weird?"

Emaline shook her head in disbelief with her mouth slightly ajar, "I just. I keep my pajamas in this drawer, but it's all my bras?"

Jo furrowed her eyebrows. She knew Max sent some of his people to raid the apartment the day she picked Emaline up, but she was assured that everything had been put back exactly how it was found.

Jo came up with the idea to bring Emaline back to get some things from her apartment early in the morning. When she was out shopping for weeks worth of clothes, it dawned upon her that they could begin to gain her trust by letting her have her own belongings.

Before they could do that though, Jo needed to be sure that her apartment looked like it had been untouched and unscathed.

Jo just looked at the drawer full of bras with confusion. She knew she couldn't call Harry. And she definitely couldn't call Max.

"Don't go anywhere," Jo pointed at Emaline and rushed back to the front door where Liam stood guard.

Emaline scoffed and called out after her, "It's not like there's anywhere I can go!"

"Everything was put back exactly where it was supposed to, right?" Jo whispered.

Liam nodded, "Yes, we took pictures of everything before the raid."

A second later, Liam cocked his head, "Why?"

"Her clothes are all in different drawers than before," Jo was whisper yelling now.

Liam starts turning his head every which way, becoming suspicious, "I'll take a look around."

Emaline felt lost in her own room. She thought being back in her space would be comforting. But it only made her more upset that she had to leave it for an undefined period of time.

She didn't know if the past three days had discombobulated her to the point where she completely doesn't remember where anything in her own home is, or if she was just going crazy.

She tried her best not to assume the worst. Even though she figured her whole apartment had already been raided by Harry's crazy ass family— It wasn't in that much disarray. Just random things in different spots.

Once Emaline had practically packed her entire wardrobe, she started to think about toiletries, "Can I get my own toothpaste and stuff? I hate mint."

"Yeah, get whatever you want," Jo shoved Emaline's clothes into a large suitcase.

As Emaline searched her bathroom for necessities, she thought of the small jewelry box that her mom gifted her along with her favorite necklace. It may have been silly to bring along, but Emaline didn't know how long she'd be gone; and it made her feel better to have with her.

Emaline opened the jewelry box, intending to take out anything that lingered inside.

What she didn't expect was to see a neatly folded piece of paper tucked into one of the compartments.

Emaline checked her surroundings, peaking through the door to make sure Jo was still occupied with the suitcase.

Carefully, with hesitation, Emaline unfolded the piece of paper, not having any idea what to expect.