The Perfect Emma

Chapter Sixty-One

Emma Carroll

"You did just fine, Emma."

Emma scrubbed at her face while Sabrina was talking to her out in the hallway. Grayson was currently inside getting questioned himself - and Emma pitied him.

"That was terrible," Emma murmured while placing her hand against her temple. She let out a slow, shaky breath and slowly sat herself down on the bench in the hallway.

Sabrina remained standing and smiled down at the woman. "You didn't do bad. You were just fine." She repeated herself.

Emma shook her head. "No." She murmured. "I meant... being questioned. Getting all of that... brought back up..." Emma said slowly.

Sabrina made a face in understanding and slowly sat herself down next to Emma on the bench. "But it's done."

"I'm never getting involved around crime ever again." Emma declared.

Sabrina laughed and leaned forward slightly, resting her elbows on her knees. "I'm okay with that." She murmured, shaking her head slightly.

Hearing voices from within the courtroom, Emma and Sabrina both looked up curiously. Sabrina glanced over towards Emma before looking at the door. "Did you... want to head inside to watch?" Emma asked.

Sabrina raised up her eyebrows slightly. "I'm not sure going inside would be a very good idea for you, don't you think?"

Emma gave a soft smile and nodded her head. She understood where Sabrina was coming from but... "I want to watch Grayson, at least." Emma murmured quietly while shifting her eyes to look over at Sabrina. "Who knows. Maybe the trial will help... give me some closure in a sense." Emma gave a slight shrug and turned her head away to stare at the door. The last person she wanted to see was Aaron - but the situation he was currently in was, she would admit, pleasing.

"Are you sure?"

"Nope." Emma said without hesitation and gave Sabrina a warm smile.

Sabrina gave a soft chuckle and pushed herself up to her feet. "How about you sit in the back next to Zach. I'm going to head back on up to my spot, though. If you need to step out, you'll be near the back so it... shouldn't be an issue." Sabrina said with a slight bob to her head.

Emma nodded her head herself before standing up. She silently followed after Sabrina and snuck into the courtroom, closing the door. Only a handful of heads near the back turned to look. The rest had their eyes focused on Grayson on the stand.

Keeping her eyes down, Emma slid over and sat down next to Zach like Sabrina had suggested. Sabrina nodded her head towards Zach before making her way back up to her original spot and sitting herself down.

"You did great, Emma." Zach muttered quietly to the nervous woman. Emma merely nodded her head and closed her eyes.

Taking a deep breath, Emma glanced her eyes up towards the front. Instead of looking over at Aaron, Emma instead kept her eyes focused on Grayson. She knew that Grayson wouldn't be paying attention to her - and that's okay. He had more important things to focus on. Like... getting Aaron a guilty verdict.

"But Mr. Matthews, his record is flawless, is it not?"

Emma smiled softly at Grayson's response."Not anymore it isn't." After a pause, he added. "Yes, counselor, it was...pretty clean."

"You were being investigated for evidence mishandling, were you not, Detective?"

"I was cleared—"

"Yes or no."

Emma frowned softly while watching Grayson. She hated lawyers even more with this experience today. Emma was most definitely glad Gray didn't become one. "Yes."

"Is it true, Detective, that mere days before Miss Carroll was brought to the hospital, you were with the defendant in his home; eating dinner?"

"Yes."

"Were you not aware that Miss Carroll was also in the home?" Emma closed her eyes and frowned. She opened her eyes again - though this time she shifted her gaze to look over towards Aaron More specifically, the back of his head. She tensed slightly while watching him and squeezed her knees. Emma never once was able to merely sit with Aaron in the same room as him and feel completely safe. Not until today.

"Of course not! Do you think I would've been okay with it if I had?" Grayson remarked with annoyance. Emma frowned softly in agitation at the lawyer before glancing over at Gray. She felt bad for him for a moment and let her gaze shift back over to stare at Aaron.

Who was staring directly back at her from the corner of his eye.

The lawyer and Grayson continued to speak on the stand, though Emma wasn't quite listening anymore. Instead, she felt her body freeze up in fear as Aaron merely watched her. She knew, with every bone in her body, that he was getting amusement out of this. By the end of the trial, he would be getting locked up - and this, right now, was the last source of amusement he would have. After today, Emma hoped, he wouldn't be able to harass her anymore.

...But he still had today.

A small smile slid onto Aaron's face as he recognised Emma was watching him as well. Emma felt relatively composed, although frozen, until Aaron's lips began to move. It took Emma a moment but eventually she recognised he was mouthing something - to her. It took her a moment, but eventually she made it out.

I'll miss you, Emily.

Emma's breathing began to pick up in panic. She clutched her knees and shook slightly. Fortunately, the gestures didn't go over Zach's head who was sitting next to her. He followed her eye contact and frowned, immediately crouching himself in front of Emma to block her view.

Focusing on her breathing and not truly paying attention to the actions, Zach grabbed Emma's arms and began to gently pull her out of the aisle. He wrapped his arm around her waist to support her and steered her out through the courtroom doors.

Breathing became harder and harder. Zach sat Emma down on the bench and leaned her back against the chair. Emma merely shook slightly in fear as she continued to recall the various things that Aaron had done in the past to hurt her. By God if he wasn't arrested today then she would rob a bank herself to get arrested. It felt as though the only safe place to keep away from Aaron was for one of them to be behind bars.

"Emma," Zach spoke to her, attempting to pull her out of her attack. "Emma look at me."

Emma wasn't extremely responsive. Her eyes darted around in slight panic. Zach then did, quite possibly, one of the stupidest things he could have done. Zach leaned forward and placed both hands on either side of the bench. Though he technically wasn't touching her - he did give her the sensation of being trapped.

Fortunately, Emma was still sane enough to recognise that the person who did that was in fact Zach, not Aaron. It made her panic, but Emma was much better at handling her attacks.

Thank you, Doctor Simon.

Emma raised up her hands and immediately began to slap Zach in multiple locations. After hitting his face, chest, and both arms, Zach eventually stumbled backwards with confusion. After all, the woman had been petrified mere moments ago.

"How the hell are you so fucking bad at this!?" Emma exclaimed in frustration and fear - likely a bit louder than she should have been to begin with with court in session. Fortunately, there seemed to be a bit of a commotion from within the courtroom to begin with that few would likely hear her outburst.

With her breathing still struggling, Emma merely curled up into a ball and leaned against the bench. She tugged her arms into her chest and closed her eyes as she focused on regulating her breathing and getting out of her state of panic.

Zach, on the other hand, opted to keep an arm's length distance away from Emma. He crossed his arms and shuffled his feet awkwardly, leaving Emma alone to ride out her panic attack.