Kidnap My Heart

Chapter Thirty: Will and Emma

I looked down at the bag I’d given to Eric to hold while I looked for Emma. It contained the stupid dress I’d bought for her while she was in the dressing room with Taylor— the white, strapless one she had walked by and liked. She didn’t buy a dress the day we went shopping, even though it was one of the arguments she’d used to get me to take her, and it was a nice dress. She would’ve looked gorgeous in it. But it would never be up to par, not considering what she was used to.

Taylor shot me what was supposed to be a comforting smile. Normally, I would’ve chuckled at how ridiculous she looked smiling in that disguise, but not that day. I wasn’t in the mood. “Onesies aren’t for everyone,” she said.

“No, I guess they’re not.” I had to learn that the hard way, and I hated the fact that I cared in the first place. I’d tried so hard to avoid relationships and avoid this feeling, but it was all for nothing. I hadn’t even been in a relationship with Rage, but I still felt emotionally fucked anyway.

***

Emma

I didn’t go home immediately. I knew the police would swoop in and question me not long after I did, and I wasn’t ready for that yet. What was I supposed to say when I came home without Taylor? I couldn’t tell anyone the truth. They would put her through major therapy if I told them she stayed because she fell in love with her kidnapper. Hell, I wouldn’t have blamed them. It sounded crazy even to me, and I had watched it happen.

After Will went back inside Wal-Mart, I left the shoe store and finally ran across the parking lot, heading towards the main road. I didn’t stop running, not even when I hit the sidewalk by the main road. I needed to put as much distance between us as possible. Not because I was scared he would come after me. He wouldn’t. It was because I was scared I would go back to him.

Since I was less than athletic, my running didn’t last very long. I didn’t run. I jogged, walked, and did Zumba, yoga, and Pilates, but I didn’t run. I slowed down to a walk not long after I hit the sidewalk, my breathing shaky and shallow. I did it. I escaped. I finally had my freedom back. So why didn’t I feel like a giant metaphorical weight had been lifted off of my shoulders?

I kept walking down the sidewalk for a while. I wasn’t really sure where I was, but I didn’t really care. I’d find a way to get home sooner or later. When I walked past a police station, I decided that would be the best way to get home. It took me a few minutes to pluck up the courage to go inside. The questioning would start as soon as I walked in there. Or maybe they would let me go home first.

After adjusting my beanie so it no longer concealed all of my hair, only the top of my head, I closed my eyes and nodded decidedly. It was time to go in and face everything and everyone.

I made my way over to the front desk and a man glanced up from his paperwork. “Can I help you, miss?”

I nodded and hoped my voice wouldn’t come out shaky or nervous when I spoke. “My name is Emma van der Bilt. I’m one of the girls who was kidnapped last month. I need to get ahold of my dad. I want to go home.”

Recognition crossed his face, and he shuffled through his papers and pulled out a missing poster. It had my face on it. The poster underneath had Taylor’s face on it. It made my heart squeeze painfully in my chest. I knew she was happy over there, but I couldn’t help feeling I’d done the wrong thing by leaving her.

Wordlessly, he called the number on the poster and waited for my dad to pick up. When there was a click on the other end of the phone, my ears perked up and I took off my beanie. He’d answered. “Hello?” the officer said. “This is the California State Police Department. Who am I speaking to?”