Her mother was gone. Emma tried to calm herself down.
When the nurse and her apprentice-as she would come to know in a few minutes-saw her, and then her parents, she had shot up to her feet, and had kept her head bowed. There was no happening, no bad scenario that Emma didn’t think had happened to her mother.
“Sir, I’m sorry. But I don’t think I would have been able to stop it. This is my apprentice, Rose. On days when I am coasted at work, she comes here to take care of Sheila, and make sure that her treatment is going well. A few days ago was no different. I had been away from the state on a mission, and so she had been here to take care of Sheila. According to her, Sheila had woken at that time, one of the days. She had queried Rose on a lot of topics, of which Rose had tried to the best of her ability to answer; for I had given her the entire information you had passed me too, so that she wouldn’t lose sight of the goal. According to Rose, she had just stepped aside to tell me about the good news, when she had heard the door shut on its hinges. She had swiftly returned to the recovery room only to see that Sheila had left with her jacket and then her car, and then some money in her wallet. The redhead had left a note though that she would pay back for the inconveniences.”
Emma had left the sitting room then, and had then sauntered into the other room in the cabin, which had been where her mother had been all this while.
She inhaled deeply now, taking note of the scent of sickness, of despair, and then something that reminded her of the pack. The scent of the rainforest. Slowly she walked to the bed, and held the silky bedcover in her hands, then ran her left fingers around the edges. Her real mother had been just some miles away from her.
Emma would have wanted to get angry at the nurse and her apprentice, but she knew that they had tried enough, especially the nurse. Eighteen years was a long time to look after someone. She owed the nurse thanks, the apprentice too, her parents. Eighteen years and they hadn’t pulled the plug. The money that had been poured in, the time… Emma sighed. She had no right to be angry.
“I’m sorry, Emma. I had thought…”
Emma waved off her father’s apology, thinking it unnecessary. If there should be an apology, she should be the one giving it; for giving him a hard time whilst growing up.
“It’s okay Dad. If she was well enough to take a car, then I am sure she would be fine.”
There were the relief sighs and then the chuckle at the lame joke.
“If she is anything like me, then she will survive. She will probably be heading back to England now. Would likely be there already. I will just need to make some calls, and then we will have that confirmed.”
Her father nodded, and then dismissed the nurse and her apprentice. “You can leave now. Thanks for the years of service, Nora. I will never forget this. You know you can always reach out to me if you need something.”
The nurse, Nora, waved him off. “That’s not necessary, Jason. You know I live for moments like this. I am just glad that it turned out fine in the end.”
“Thank you, Nora. On behalf of my mother too, thank you.”
Emma watched the woman consider her for a moment. “You are really a carbon copy of her. What about your sister? Have you met her yet?”
Emma didn’t say a word in reply, not because she didn’t want to, but for the safety of the woman. But when she saw that the woman was still waiting on a reply from her, she shook her head. “But I hope to meet her soon, to meet them soon.”
The woman wished her luck, and then walked out of the room with the apprentice.
Emma knew the exact time the latter left the cabin, right before she shut the door that alerted her parents that they were alone now.
***
“I am sorry, Eva.” Esther’s head was still bowed as she spoke, only lifting when she heard the insane laughter that shouldn’t be heard from the mouth of a child, or rather Eva.
Eva was the sweetest thing she had encountered in her life, next to food. The little girl and her had kicked it off bare minutes after arriving at the pack the first time. They had played together, and she had even helped with the younger girl’s assignment the few days she had been in the pack.
Even when she had worked as a spy for Leonarya, Eva had been the line that she had refused to cross. The black witch had asked her to retrieve Eva in order to put the party to halt. But she had refused, not outrightly of course. However, she had been the one to bring up the plan to sabotage Emma, not because she hated the girl, but because she didn’t think Eva would survive being away from her family.
Emma was different.
Even though she had wondered about her aunt’s fixation on the former, the few times she had spent with the redhead told her that the latter was strong willed, and can survive anywhere. And when she had seen how she had thrown Claire, or rather flung her to the air as a ragdoll without so much as lifting a finger, she knew she had made the right choice.
“You are sorry? Well, sorry wouldn’t bring back Emma now, would it? It wouldn’t bring back our spies now, would it?”
Esther took a few steps back when she saw Eva move close to her with a killer intent in her eyes. And right before she could shout when Eva lifted her hands toward her muttering some ancient magic, right before she was strewn to the wall and faded into the darkness, she wondered how Leonarya had finally sunken her clutches in the little girl.