(Title page/Cover by @AleBrasil01 )
"I can't believe she's doing this to me, it's only been a year."
"A year and a half"
"It's just too soon, and the new restrictions, I just, I don't like it."
"I know but it's not so bad is it? I mean, you still get to be here don't you?"
Emilia Heart, turns to look at her best friend in the entire world with the dirtiest glare she can muster as she peers through the raccoon-like makeup that she had been wiping off with a dirtied wipe.
"Ok, yeah, so it's bad, but, hey! Just think of it as a new beginning. You never really saw him anyway, it's not like you really miss him, right?" Jasmine asks, trying to give an encouraging smile but her eyes tell an entirely different story. Leaning against the bathroom wall, searching Emilia's face slowly to try and guess what she was feeling behind the pissed off look in her eyes.
Emilia couldn't answer, she didn't know how she felt about her absentee father. He had always been on the move from city to city, running from debt and loans. She only saw him once a year if that, and a card on holidays with a nice check or present to accompany it. An unreturnable "I love you" scrawled across the bottom like an after thought.
She didn't miss him exactly, she could never say that she had known him, but he was her father. They shared blood, and eyes, if nothing else. A small twang in her heart as she clears away the remnants of black and sees those unassuming green eyes with thin, long lashes and rather straight eyebrows of dark blonde hair. She pushed a piece of her long hair from her forehead and took a towel to her face, wiping off the water as an excuse to look away.
"I don't know Jaz, I just. It just seems too soon, I know they had been separated for a while, but I also know that she really loved him, and Mr. Delmont, well." Emilia sighs, glancing at her friend in the mirror over her mess of tangled hair from being held in pins for several hours on end. Looking for the rest of the words that she couldn't think of.
The wedding had been disastrous, first her speech that had gotten a glare from her mother, then the food that had nearly given her an allergic reaction because of mushrooms with her chicken that she then couldn't eat, and had been starving until cake. She had also been forced to take the second dance with her new step-father, Mr. Delmont, to show how she was just sooo happy with the new arrangements to be made. During the dance he had told her that a few things would start to change in her life, in fact, they had changed that very evening.
Emilia was trying very hard not to think about that. Slipping a large t-shirt over her head, the comfortable cotton a free shirt she had gotten from some volunteer service that had happened years ago and that she could hardly remember.
Emilia winced as she struggled to put a brush through the dark golden locks, struggling as it gets stuck in tangle after tangle until it is yanked from her skull and is left in a bushy mess that she flips into a messy bun atop her head, determined to deal with it in the morning.
"So, what types of restrictions is he putting on you anyway? You didn't give me the details." Jasmine asks as Emilia leads the way to the bedroom with a frustrated huff. Jaz just wouldn't drop the damned conversation.
"I'm not even sure what all of them are quite yet, I know that he had some sort of bodyguard drop me off though, and they're picking me up in the morning too. So I guess I don't get to drive myself anymore, which means no freedom. There was also something about behaving for the cameras, but before he could finish my mom took him away for more dancing and I didn't want to stick around." Emilia flops back onto the bed and gazing up at the web of lights hanging from hooks in the ceiling. She had helped Jasmine put those up barely a month ago, strings of tiny twinkle lights hanging above the bed and lighting it in a soft way that didn't hurt the eyes. She turns on her side so that she doesn't have to look at the beautiful lights anymore, they reminded her too much of the fairy globes that had been at the wedding a few hours ago.
"Well, is he at least cute?" Jaz jokes, grinning as she lays down beside her, giving off the goofy vibe that made her irresistible to be mad at.
Emilia couldn't help but choke out a laugh at the idea, "I don't know, I wasn't exactly paying attention when I got in the car now was I?" She jokes, grinning at the memory of them sneaking out of the party at the end and Jaz somehow convincing the driver to take them to her house instead. Then again, her mother probably didn't want to be disturbed that night, she had her new husband to keep her occupied after all. She couldn't help but to make a face at the thought of it. Not exactly wanting an image of her mother and Mr. Delmont doing IT that night. He would never be her father, he was already trying to rules onto her and she hadn't even officially moved in yet. Just moments after they had said their vows, he had tethered her to his name with nothing more than a dance.
"Good point, besides, the middle thingy was up so I couldn't even get a good look at him." Jaz gives a mock pout before crawling onto the bed and over so that she could be face to face with Emilia. "Look, I know he's not your dad, and I know that you might not be used to this yet, but maybe just try? From what I saw, he makes your mom happy, and that's more than your dad ever really did." She gives a little shrug and cuddles up with one of the pillows, "Besides, he's rich, how bad could it really be in the end?"
Emilia couldn't bring herself to respond to that. She knew her mother was not a rash woman, she never did anything without thinking it all the way through. She had to be in love to even think about marrying this man. Crawling up to the pillow beside her bestfriend, she couldn't help but wonder if maybe it would be ok. Maybe Jasmine was right, it could be fun to have a personal bodyguard to fuck with. It was just, unexpected, something that she had always hated in her life. She hated surprises.
Emilia thought with a sigh as she let her eyes focus on the twinkling, soft lights in the darkness overhead, like stars, she thought with a small smile. She couldn't help herself, as she wished up on the one in the very middle, the brightest among them all, that she could be happy for her mom, and not resent the changes to come.
Her wish had clearly not come true, a sharp knock on the front door jolts Jasmine and Emilia awake, crusty eyed and hair wild in response to the resounding boom that had shook the small apartment with its force.
Emilia didn't usually sleep in, or at least, not until noon, but having such a sharp knock at 8 in the fucking morning after a very long night and no sleep until around 2 in the morning was not pleasant. Therefore, she was not the happiest person alive as she flung open the door in her over-large shirt and soft pajama short shorts to discover a very professionally dressed man in sunglasses so dark that you couldn't even see his eyes. The crisp black suit and no nonsense shoes almost had her slamming the door in his face, the guy looked like he was part of the secret service and here to kidnap them for something they had no knowledge of.
Instead she managed to squeak out in a timid voice, "Good morning, may I help you?" to the total stranger that looked ready to murder her with a single finger as she held the door at a barely open angle to poke her head around.
"Emilia Delmont?" He asks, voice as rigid as the rest of him.
"Yes, why?" She asks, closing the door a little more with one hand on the lock in case this really was a kidnapping attempt. Though she couldn't guarantee her new "Dad" would pay a hefty ransom for her.
"I have been assigned as your personal detail Miss Delmont." The man says, putting one hand on the door so if she slammed it shut it would crush his fingers. With that simple action, she almost DID slam the thing closed in his face, but manages to resist, barely. Trying continue a civil conversation with the man, at least, as civil as her trembling hands could make it.
"Uhm, assigned by who exactly?" Emilia asked, her voice rising into a near squeak. This man, was supposed to follow her around all day every day? Be her driver? Be with her at all times? He had got to be joking. Surely someone so. . . stern couldn't be her frinking bodyguard.
"Your mother, Misses Delmont and my boss, Mr. Anthony Delmont." He says, pushing the door a little to widen the space and reveal a little more of Emilia's face to him forcing her back an inch or so.
"O-oh, uhm, ok then, now isn't really a good time. .." Emilia trailed off as he pushed the door a little wider and stepped inside, forcing her backwards several steps and nearly tripping on the rug in her haste to get away.
"I have been assigned to look after you Miss Delmont, and I would be neglectful to not inform you that we are to be leaving." The complete stranger says, standing in front of the only way out, hands clasped, unmoving, and most definitely not listening to a single word that had just come out of her mouth.
"U-uhm, right, but this isn't my apartment and I'm not really sure that Jasmine would really like a total stranger in her house, especially since she's still asleep and everything, so if you could just go that would be great." She rambled out very quickly, moving to block him from getting further inside the apartment.
"Emi, what's going. . Uhm, hello?" Calls Jasmine, placing her hands on her hips with a frown as she stares at the strange man in her doorway that is unfamiliar to either of them. Lips pursued and cheeks aflamed at a stranger coming in without her permission.
"I am Miss Emilia's personal detail, assigned by Mr. Delmont himself." The unnamed man says, clearly resigned to his station as a body guard for someone who neither needed, nor wanted the protection given to her.
"Riiiight, and your name is?" Jasmine asks, clearly not impressed by the imposing man with such a tight lipped look and stone cold features.
"My name is Mr. Knyte, Alexander Knyte."