Eternal Hope

Chapter 9

Emmersyn

She sighed as she slowly shut the door to Liam’s room. She had spent the better part of the night helping Liam feel safe and secure in their home. He hadn’t wanted to go to sleep, despite all of her assurances that the house was completely safe and that the police would be outside all night to stop the “bad man”. His whole body had shook and he had refused to let her go. She had finally settled him in her room, something that she never did, but Liam had finally calmed when she had laid down with him on her bed. And now nearly three hours after his usual bedtime, he was finally asleep. 

Walking around the house, Emmersyn checked all of the doors and windows on the top floor before heading to the first floor and coming to an abrupt stop at the bottom of the stairs. Carter put his phone away and stood up to meet her.

“Is Liam finally asleep?”

Emmersyn considered whether it was worth the energy to try and kick him out of her house. She glanced at the watch on her wrist and confirmed that it was going on one in the morning. There was no point making him drive the twenty-five minutes to his house when everyone had to be up bright and early tomorrow. Emmersyn took deep breaths and rubbed at her temples, trying to relieve the tension headache that she could feel coming on. “He’s finally asleep. I need to lock down the house before he wakes up and finds me not there.”

Carter nods and walks to the front door, pulling the shades down and closing the curtains. Taking the hint that there would be no more conversation, Em turned and did the same in the living room and kitchen, while Carter took the dining room, sunroom, and playroom. Once all the windows and doors had been checked and locked, Emmersyn set the alarm and motioned for Carter to follow her upstairs. Carter followed silently, unnerving Em and making her feel hunted. She had a feeling that the silence would not last for long. Steeling herself for a fight, Em opened the door of the bedroom right off of the stairs. 

Inside this bedroom was a library/office situation. She walked over and pulled open a cabinet revealing a murphy bed. Emmersyn pulled it down and straightened the covers already on the bed. It was lightly made with soft linen sheets and a handmade quilt, gifted to Emmersyn by her grandmother while she was in college. The quilt was done in purple batiks offset with blues, whites, and blacks. No two squares were the same and yet they all fit together. It was what Em loved about the quilt. Her grandmother tended to go for the more extravagant, or what some might call busy, quilting designs. Those designs were more complicated, and challenged her grandmother to step up her quilting game. All of the quilts were beautiful because her grandmother was talented, but none of them really spoke of home. This quilt had been on Em’s bed when she brought Liam home from the hospital. This quilt had swaddled her in love while she stayed up at night to feed and change a fussy baby. This quilt had quietly dried her tears when she wished for Carter. Those moments of weakness galled her. She was not a damsel in need of a man to come rescue her. Damn it! She could rescue her own damn self! The worst thing is that Em suspected that Carter would have mad the already difficult situation worse. Not because he was unsympathetic, but because he tended to forget that others had feelings that would need to be dealt with.  Sometimes it made it hard for Emmersyn to have her own breakdowns because his emotions always came first. And they were normally so volatile that it left Em very little emotional energy to feel or deal with her own emotions. There were even times when Carter would get mad at her for having a breakdown at the same time as him, it had made her feel that her emotions came second and was a top reason why she had not told him about her pregnancy. 

All that did not stop the wanting, or the love that she had for him. She was aware of what his home life had been like prior to their relationship. If his mother was anything to go by, Carter had learned that any upset needed to be big or it didn’t get any attention. It would get swept under the rug because it wasn’t big enough to cause problems for others. It had caused tension, but Carter had been working with her on it, to allow them both to express emotions without it causing a fight or rendering the other person’s emotions moot or ignored. 

Carter cleared his throat, bringing her out of her thoughts. Her hand stilled from where it had been gently stroking the quilt. “The pillow is in that bottom cabinet.” Emmersyn pointed to the lowest cabinet on the other side of the bed. “I’m going to go back to Liam. You can leave in the morning.”

Carter pushed up against her back, “I don’t have a car here.”

Emmersyn blushed. Of course, she had driven here and Carter was now stranded. That’s why he was still downstairs. Em turned to face him, “I’m so sorry! I completely spaced about that! I should have taken you home after the police left.”

Carter shook his head, “that wouldn’t have mattered I would have just come back. I do not think that you staying in this house by yourself is a good idea. Plus, I can help you finish that character development that you need.”

Em pushed against his chest, trying to step around him and gain space for the fight she was about to have, only to find Carter basically made of stone. He wouldn’t budge, and simply stood there watching her struggle, “Carter move.”

“Not until you hear me out.”

“Carter, this is not the time or the place for you to pushing yourself into my life. Especially when I’m still not sure if I even want you there.”

She watched Carter’s face harden and his breathing deepened. He was trying to control his temper. “Emmersyn. That is my son in the next room. It was my son who was almost kidnapped tonight—”

“YOUR son?! That is rich coming the man who knew about him for a year and didn’t bother to contact us. He is MY son!” Em beat an open hand against her chest to emphasize her point, “I raise him, I clothe him, I feed him! I soothed every bruise, cut, and scrape! While you got to d**k around and find yourself, I was struggling to make ends meet and raise a kid! Don’t you dare act like you have ANY claim on him, or me.”

Carter’s hands clenched and a thundercloud descended onto his face, “No claim?! Are you kidding me?! I am his father!”

“Yes, but you are not his dad. At the moment, you are nothing more than a sperm donor. You can change that with time and effort, but you don’t have that claim yet. And you don’t get to claim it just because you want to feel macho.”

“Want to feel MACHO!? Emmersyn he was almost kidnapped! His Nanny is still missing, and the police were barely bothered by it! They even tried to insinuated that it was a gang issue.”

“I was there Carter, I don’t need you to mansplain the situation to me.”

“Then stop trying to be an independent black woman and let me help you!”

“Excuse me? I am an independent black woman. However, I don’t see why that warrants mentioning in this conversation, or why it is a bad thing.”

“Normally it’s not, but right now you are using your pride and not your head.”

“You think that I wouldn’t do everything I could to keep my son safe?? Are you seriously suggesting that I am thinking of myself rather than my son?!”

“Then what is wrong with me staying here and adding an extra layer of protection for the both of you?”

“Carter, the present is not what makes me hesitant when it comes to you and you know that. We have unresolved issues. Issues I’d rather not hash out around my son. He doesn’t know what an argument looks like and I’ve worked hard for that. I don’t date. He’s never seen me around another man. What will you moving in after all of this do to him? His state of mind is my first priority. Your feelings do not factor into that. Do I make myself clear? You and me are on the farthest back burner that I can put us until Liam is safe. And having a strange man suddenly move into his house, after another strange man took his Nanny, is not going to help him mentally or emotionally. And it will only make me more tense and anxious. Kids pick up on that kind of thing.”

Carter went to interrupt but Em cut him off, she would not let him derail her. “No. Carter your emotions are valid but they are not important here. Liam’s safety and well-being are the first and only thing on my mind. Now, you can stay tonight, but after that I will be taking you home and you will stay there.” Em turned and went to walk out of the room, having said all she needed. She would not let this man hold his wants over her and her child’s needs. That was not happening.

Carter walked ahead of her and stood in front of the door. Effectively blocking her exit, “Emmersyn, Liam needs protection. And we can introduce me to him slowly. You’re right that our issues are not the main concern right now, and they can wait. But we can introduce me to Liam as an old friend of yours and let him come to me. This way there is an extra person to help keep an eye on things around here, I get to spend more time with Liam, and you and I can take some time to get to know each other again. I am not the same boy that you left. I only ask that you give me a chance to prove that before you write me off.”

Emmersyn sighed. She couldn’t argue that having him around could be a deterrent, especially since the police weren’t taking the situation seriously. They had basically said that a broken window and a scared two-year-old were not proof of a kidnapping. Emmersyn had tried to show the footage of the man slipping into her house through the window and then back out with the Nanny slung unconscious over his shoulder. The police had waved it away. They took the kidnapping seriously but refused to see it as more than that. A boyfriend or drug dealer taking a woman was an easier pill to swallow than, ‘he couldn’t get the kid and took the girl for spite.’ Not even his horrid note had changed their minds. Even though the note said almost exactly that. Emmersyn needed to call her editor and update her on the situation. But not until she had some sleep.

“Fine Carter. We will try it your way. But, if Liam or I am uncomfortable by the end of the week, you are gone. Capiche? I’ll take you to get some essentials tomorrow.” Em waited but Carter just stood there, “Can you move now? I need to go to bed.”

Carter sighed and reluctantly slid out of the way, allowing Emmersyn to pass. She just hoped that she would be able to sleep. Because she had a feeling that her life was under assault from Carter Wilson. 

As the door closed behind her Emmersyn heard Carter softly say, “Thank you Em. I won’t let you down this time.”

Emmersyn shook her head and trudged down the hall, her mind was reeling and her heart was pounding. This was going to be a really long week.