The Perfect Emma

Chapter Eleven

Emma Mabel

It had been months and Emma continued to act like the perfect Emily - just like Aaron wanted. It had gotten to the point that Aaron began to trust her. They grew a routine. She did laundry, cleaned the basement, and made all meals. When Aaron was home, Emma was allowed upstairs and she was told to clean the rest of the house - with Aaron watching, of course.

Roughly a month ago, Aaron gave Emma a wedding ring. She was disgusted, of course, but honored in a sense. She had passed his little test on becoming the perfect Emily. God did she hate the name Emily now more than ever.

In addition, Emma and Aaron came up with a system. Whenever Aaron wanted to contact her when he wasn't home he merely used a one way device that fed messages through on a small digital screen. It was one way - because Aaron didn't want her calling elsewhere. She understood that. She didn't like it, but she understood it.

After living over a year with Aaron it became... home.

Emma hated it - don't get her wrong. She absolutely hated being here. But this... all of this. It was her life now. She became familiar with not only the basement but Aaron himself. Surprisingly, after a year of him beating her down into the perfect Emily, he began to open up as well. She grew to know his favorite things, including his favorite foods, about his family, and his job. She heard plenty about Detective Todd - though Aaron had grown to complain about him more and more each day.

Being the perfect Emily, she merely remained quiet and nodded her head while listening to everything Aaron told her. Emma learned that it was best for her to merely act like a perfect wife. A few months ago, it had even popped into Emma's mind that being Aaron's wife wouldn't be all too bad. She's practically grown numb to all of the yelling he did when she did something wrong.

However, then she would recognise how delusional she was acting. She was going to merely give up any thought of being alone and live under Aaron's control... forever?

No.

Nonetheless, Aaron had grown comfortable around Emma. He had begun to take her out once every week to small restaurants on the edge of town - places that she'd never gone and wouldn't expect to find people she did know. Every time they went out, Aaron always gave one rule. Never look up while driving. Ever.

So she listened - at least, until today. While Aaron was driving to a small chinese restaurant on the edge of town, he muttered something under his breath. Emma turned her head instinctively to listen and quickly turned her head back down when she recognised her mistake. He didn't notice - so she wasn't going to get scolded. She thought she was safe.

After checking outside of the vehicle and the street, Aaron led Emma out. He wrapped his arm around her waist, though with more possessiveness, and began to steer her inside. Aaron only took her out to places with no cameras, after all.

Walking inside, Aaron spoke while keeping his sunglasses. The pair sat at a table and, like Emma expected, Aaron ordered and did all of the communicating for the pair. "I need to use the restroom," Emma murmured quietly to Aaron, watching his face.

Aaron didn't seem happy. He nodded his head and pushed himself up to his feet, walking Emma over to the restroom. Going alone was forbidden, after all. Aaron leaned outside in the hallway and nodded his head towards the restroom. Emma pushed her way through the door and stepped inside, using the restroom. She washed her hands as another woman stepped out from the stall. She typed something on her phone, which caused Emma to glanced over her shoulder towards the door.

Cellphone.

"Can..." Emma whispered softly and pointed to the phone. "...Can I use that?" She asked quietly.

The woman glanced up and cocked her eyebrow up, likely in confusion. "Uh," She said, tilting her head slightly. "Yeah, sure." The woman held out the phone to Emma, and Emma took it into her hands like it was a treasure box.

Immediately and instinctively, Emma dialed 9-1-1 and pressed it against her ear. She heard the dialing and listened eagerly until she heard a man on the other end of the line speak. "9-1-1, what's your emergency?"

...And Emma froze.

She wasn't sure what to say. A part of her wanted to ask for the man to bring out the police - all of the police. However, Emma couldn't help but remember what Aaron had said. He was the police. If she called for the police, he would know - and she would get killed for it. Even if she did something as simple as say who she was or ask for Detective Grayson, she had a feeling that she would be killed. At this rate, especially with Aaron's bitching about Grayson, Emma was able to determine that Grayson most definitely was not working with him on her kidnapping.

"Hello? Is anyone there?" The operator asked. "I'm sending police to your location."

Emma stared down at the phone with wide eyes. Her lip quivered in fear, her hand shaking as she watched the phone. She wasn't sure what to say. He would know.

Aaron always knows.

"D..." Emma started to speak with a slight stutter. She wanted to say 'detective' but she couldn't quite get that through her lips. Instead, she opted to say something that wouldn't get traced back to herself - though would likely turn all of the Los Angeles police partners against each other. "D-Don't trust your partner." Emma ended up muttering before hanging up the phone.

Emma handed the phone back to the woman, who kept her eyebrow cocked up in confusion. Muttering her thanks, Emma stepped out from the bathroom and made he way over to Aaron, who was watching Emma. "You took a while in there, Emily." He commented.

Emma crossed her arms over her stomach and swayed slightly. "I don't feel too well," She murmured, remembering the 911 had literally said police were on their way. "I think I'm going to be sick. Can we go?" She whispered quietly.

Aaron furrowed his eyebrows together in partial annoyance before nodding his head. "Grayson called, anyway." He muttered. "He wants me to swing down to the station to look at something." He murmured vaguely. "I'll take you back home."

The kidnapped woman nodded her head as she was buckled into the car. They began to drive away, yet as they drove Emma could hear sirens, once again, coming in the direction from where she was. However, being in the car driving away, Emma knew that the police would stay at the Chinese place - not knowing that they had just missed the woman who called 911.

Once arriving back at Aaron's home, Emma was steered inside. She was led back into the basement with the doors closing behind her. "I'll be home after Grayson is done scratching in air." Aaron commented. "Make something with chicken. I'm feeling chicken." Aaron demanded as he closed the door behind Emma.

Emma nodded her head and made her way down the stairs. Knowing her excuse for leaving the restaurant was because she felt sick, Emma felt obligated to head over to the restroom. She merely hovered around in the restroom, thinking about what she had done.

What if Aaron put the pieces together and traced it back to her?