Chapter 18

                                    

                                          
Calm and so much unnaturally quiet... Emma sat on the back porch steps of her house, her hands folded across her knees and her chin rested upon them. The whole day had passed in anxiety, too many things working as a slow poison inside her.

It was still so hard for her to believe that Brandan had truly come back in her life and had knocked on her doorstep, knocked on her life every brick of which had signatures of her blood and sweat. And now everything that was so precious for her was in threat, threatened by that one person's return. 

What would she tell him if he asked about her children, about their father? 

No. she would never let him know, otherwise everything would be ruined. Everything. 

She had went too far leaving her past behind. She thought she had managed to make her life perfect with the two most adorable loving children in it, a stable career and a roof upon her head, only to suddenly turn back and discover that the past that she had left behind had just followed right after her. 

Why was fate putting her into this test? Why she had to face Brandan again, why ?

If she was alone she would have - maybe again run away. It's not only Brandan she was running away from, she was running away from Evan too and her haunted memories. She definitely didn't intend to return to that state ever. But she wasn't alone now, she had now two little people to think about. She couldn't risk their future or make their life unstable. 

She was torn between hiding and avoid the reality or stand up and face it. 

Sighing she closed her tired eyes. 

"Emma ..."

A voice so husky called out her name in the softest way possible, so soft and sincere that she felt like she would melt into it. She opened her eyes only to lock them into two dark pair of eyes looking back into hers intently. 

Brandan leaned against the pillar of her back porch steps. It was past twelve at night, he had been looking at her from quite a while now, sitting here... lost and dazed out in thoughts. Only if he could know what those thoughts were.

He had been wandering around keeping his eyes on her house, finding a way - an opportunity to talk to her. But when he saw that opportunity arrive - her walking out through the back door, he suddenly found himself dwelling into two different directions. While he wanted to go beg for her forgiveness and keep grovelling till she melted, at the same time he felt this uncontrollable urge to straightaway ask her those questions he was dying to get answers of since he met her last night. 

"You know, it's not safe to sit out here alone at such an ungodly hour." He said quietly.

It took a couple of seconds for Emma to come out of the shock. She knew this was inevitable, Brandan would somehow find a way to talk to her. His living in the neighborhood had only worsened things even more. But why did he want to talk to her? Shouldn't he be happy, be thankful that she was out of his life, that he didn't have to marry her and sacrifice his so called reputation? He should've been avoiding her like a plague. 

He hated her, right? She still remembered the venom in his voice that morning when he made it pretty clear how much he despised her. Not just that day but every day - every single moment of when she was around him. Then what had changed that now!

Silently she stood up. She was about to turn around and walk away but before she could Brandan's hand gripped her wrist, stopping her.

"Leaving me again?"

The double meaning of his words weren't unnoticed by Emma, nor was the tingle on her skin that was created by his touch, which only made anger bubble up from deep within her. The pent up anger of years was slowly surfacing, like how lava slowly erupts from a sudden awakened volcano.