Chapter 1

Emily held back and tried to stay out of Hal's way as much as she could. She knew how much it was killing him to see his daughter in so much pain and the last thing he needed right now was seeing her while he was still really angry at her.

She would never admit it, but seeing him in so much pain hurt her more then it should for a woman who left him and moved on with someone else. She stared at the picture of the two of them in her wallet and ran her finger over it.

She hadn't told anyone else she had kept the picture. She actualy told Paul she got rid of it, but the truth was, she couldn't do it. She couldn't throw away the picture of her husband, because she wasn't ready to let go of him yet.

She looked up when she heard someone come up to her and quickly put the picture away when she saw Paul coming her way.

"Hey" he said and handed her a cup of coffee. She plastered a fake smile on her face and accepted the coffee from him. "I just came back from Jennifer and she wants to talk to you"

Emily looked at him in shock and her smile dissapeared. "That's not funny Paul, you know how much I care about your sister"

"I'm serious" He said, noticing how Emily had distanced herself from him ever since they ran into Hal earlier.

She got up and took another sip from her coffee. Paul stood behind her and she turned to him.

"Why would your sister wanna talk to me? She has never wanted to talk to me ever since she came back to Oakdale and now that Hal and I are getting a divorce, there is absolutely no reason what so ever for her to suddenly wanna talk to me"

"Look, I don't know why she wants to talk to you okay, she just does" Paul was getting irritated about her turning away from him and he wasn't subtle enough to not let her notice.

"Fine, I'll go talk to her!" Emily said and walked away without so much as a second glance.

When she got to Jennifer's room, Hal was talking to Barbara. Emily couldn't stop the quick pang of jealousy and pain that hit her when she saw them together.

She straightend up and walked up to them. "What the hell are you doing here?" Barbara asked her angry.

"Your daughter asked to talk to me" Emily answered, not once taking her eyes off Hal. If she looked closely, she could see the same look of longing in his eyes that she was sure were in hers.

But before she had time to talk to him, Barbara started off on one of her temper tantrums, causing Emily to look away from Hal and focuse her attention on Barbara.

"There is NO way my daughter would EVER want to talk to you. You're nothing but a slut who left her father for her brother and if you think she will ever talk to you again then you are completely insane!"

While Hal stood listening to Barbara, he really wanted to step in and tell her to back off and leave his wife alone, but he had to accept that Emily didn't want him anymore, wich meant that she probably didn't want him coming to her rescue every time.

He had just decided to let Emily fight her own battles from now on, when Barbara raised her hand to Emily. That's when he stepped in and grabbed her hand. "Don't you dare hit my wife!" He said, surprising not only himself and Barbara, but most of all Emily.

She turned to him in shock and was just about to say something, when Jennifer came out of her room, attrachted to all the noice going on outside her room.

"Mom, what's going on? Why are you yelling at Emily? And dad, why are you grabbing her arm?" Jenn asked surprised.

Hal walked up to his daughter and put his arm around her shoulder. "Your mom got upset with Emily, because she said that you wanted to talk to her and she didn't really believe that. I stepped in when your mom was about to hit Emily. I'm sorry you had to witness that" He said, squeezing her shoulder.

"No, it's okay. I actually did wanna talk to Emily for a bit, if that's okay with you?" She asked Hal. She wanted to talk to Emily, but if her father wasn't okay with that then she wouldn't. Her father was the most important thing to her right now and even though she hadn't really been showing it since she came back to oakdale, she would never do anything to hurt him.

Emily was surprised that Jenn actually wanted to talk to her and the way she felt was obvious to Jenn and everyone else.

"Well, don't just stand there, get in here" Jenn joked, trying to lighten to obviously tense situation they all found themselves in.

Emily threw a triumphant smile at Barbara, turned around and followed Jenn inside her room.

To Be Continued...