Chapter 8

A few years later

Skylar, Jackson and Emily were at the park, Emily was reading while they were playing. She was looking up every few minutes to make sure that they were okay. But Emily saw a person hiding in the trees staring at them.

She closed her book, and stared at the man. The man started walking towards them, Emily felt a jolt of energy and ran towards her kids.

"guys, it's time to go!" Emily called out to her

"Ok," they were right by Emily in seconds.

"Hey, luv" Emily stopped walking, she recognised the way he said it, from all of those years ago. Justin. Emily held them close to her, Emily's breathing was more rapid. "Hey, Skylar. Jackson right?"

Emily turned around aggressively, they hid behind Emily. "Don't be afraid of me," He bent down, Emily stepped back.

"Get away from them!" Emily Screamed at him

"Why? She is my daughter too"

"Mum, what is he talking about?" Skylar asked

"Nothing sweetheart" Emily replied

"You're six right?" Justin asked Skylar

"How do you know her?" Emilly asked

"You don't think I wouldn't have my friends stalk them, and tell me how they're doing?"Justin asked, every night Skylar was complaining about tapping at her window. And she said someone was in her closet, But Emily thought that she was just being a typical imaginative little kid. "Stay the fuck away from my kids!" Emily screamed at him

"One of them is ours" Justin corrected

"She is not your daughter"

"I know it and you know it. In jail my friend would spy on you, you two are close now. But who, you are going to have to figure out on your own." He smirked "I would like to see her every once in a while,"

"Absolutely not!"

"You can not legally take her away from me, unless I sign papers that you give me, or law enforcement makes me give her up." Justin knew it wasn't true, but he was trying to collect all of his children from the women he raped, his friend would stalk them for a while and tell him. He already had fourteen of them at his house by using this excuse. He knew single mothers would automatically get full custody of the child, but it worked for a lot of them. Emily looked like she died inside, he was confident that he would get Skylar.

"Fuck"

"How about I get her for the weekends, and you get her for the week" Emily glared, "Absolutely not!"

"You can not take her away from me." Emily glared at Justin, she looked at Jackson and Skylar, they were terrified, Emily looked defeated. "Agreed?" Justin had a plan to slowly take her away from Emily.

"Fine! Saturday, and I get her back on Sunday night." Emily was terrified to leave her with him, she didn't know what to do at the exact moment. If she knew she could then she wouldn't let him take her. She hated this excuse for a man, She felt tears start to run down her face. "Ok, Skylar. Starting next week, you will go with him, I can't take you away from him. He is your Dad, and I can't take you away." She could see the fear in Skylar's eyes "If I could I would, but I can't. Let me know if anything whatsoever happens over there." Emily told her

"I don't want to go" Skylar was crying as well.

"I know but you have to, or I could get in trouble,"

Emily was stressing about Saturday all week, she was distracted when she was using a letter opener, and sliced her hand open.

"Fuck!" Emily screamed, she grabbed a bunch of tissues because that was the best thing she had at the immediate moment. Andrea was out with Miranda at a photoshoot, she knew they were not going to be back anytime soon. And she couldn't do anything to take care of her hand, cause she had to manage the desk. She clenched her hand and just switched the tissues once they were too bloody, and couldn't take anymore. After an hour Emily called Andrea.

"Hello?" Andrea said into the phone

"How much longer do you have, Do you know?" Emily said trying to sound as calm and collected as she could, she was light headed and couldn't take much more of this.

"I don't know, are you okay?"

"No, no, not really."

"What's going on?"

"I sliced my hand open with the letter opener"

"Ooh," Andrea winced

"If there is any way for you to find out when you're going to be back, that would be awesome."

"Hey Nigel, how much longer?" Andrea said in the background.

"I don't know, Why?"

"No reason," Andrea put the phone back to her ear "I'm sorry Em,"

"I would leave the desk, but I don't want to end up like her." Andrea knew who she was talking about, the person that she told her about on her first day, who got fired from leaving the desk.

After half an hour Emily called to tell Andrea she took care of it. And went back to doing her work. They got back twenty minutes later

Andrea, Cassandra, Miranda, and Nigel walked into the office and Emily was cleaning her desk still, she used all of her tissues and got a little bit of blood on her desk. She was cleaning the blood off of her desk,

"What happened?" Miranda asked Emily

"I sliced my hand open" Emily replied

"Are you okay?" Miranda, Andrea, and Emily had actually started to be friends. They met the real Miranda, and not the editor recently.

"I'm fine Miranda" Miranda went into her office.

"What's wrong?" Cassandra asked

"Justin is making me give him Skylar, tomorrow" Emily replied

"Are you fucking serious!"

"I can't legally take her away from him"

"Who cares about legally?"

"Probably Miranda, and the police"

"She is your daughter Emily, and you're going to let him have her?"

"Believe me, if I didn't have to, I wouldn't! You know how I was telling you that Skylar was complaining about hearing tapping at her window, and a monster in her closet."

"Yes"

"He says he knows who was in there but he won't tell me, I checked her closet and found a clown mask and an axe on the floor. I asked Jackson if he heard anything, but he said that he didn't, and I found a bloody pig mask and a knife in his closet."

"Oh my God, what are you going to do?"

"I called the police, and they're trying to find the fingerprints on it, but if they can, they said that it will take a while. Me, Mike, and Skylar are staying in a hotel and Jackson is at my Mum's house in Missouri. I would have Skylar stay there, but I need to give her, to that... thing."

"Emily, I'm worried about you"

"Why?"

"You look extremely depressed"

"I haven't been closer to putting a gun to my head."

"I don't trust you alone then"

Emily rolled her eyes, "Don't put me through that again"

"I had to cut you down from the rope Emily! Your Mum had to wrestle a gun out of your hands. why should I trust you?"

"Either way, I don't have a lot of time alone, other than in the office. But I wouldn't do that here."

Emily was finally done with the extra work she had to do for Miranda. Emily sighed and shut down her computer. She looked at the clock and it said 10:30pm.

"I'm going home, I'll see you tomorrow, Cass" Emily said

"Ok See you then" Cassandra said

Emily got to the apartment, Mike was watching the news. And Skylar was asleep on the couch next to him. She had her head propped up against the arm rest,

"How was work?" Mike asked, he paused the t.v. and turned to look at her.

"I sliced my hand with a letter opener, Your day?"

"Ouch, It was ok. Me and Skylar talked a lot, she is scared to be away from you."

"I wish I didn't have to do this" She put her hand on Skylar's back

"Hey, let's get you to bed." Emily told her, they both got dressed for bed and they both fell asleep quickly. Emily held her daughter close to her. She had her usual nightmare, of Skylar's birth.

That morning

Emily hugged her daughter tight, before she went to Justin. "I love you," Emily said

"I love you too" Skylar replied sheepishly

"I will pick you up on Sunday, ok"

"Ok"

Skylar went over to Justin, Emily felt like someone was twisting a knife in her heart, as she watched Skylar climb into the back seat of his car. Emily went back to the hotel, and Cass came over a little while after.

When Cassandra left, they were tense. Emily and Mike had fought the night before, just before she went to bed. They had been fighting a lot about Dylan, Mike felt threatened by him but didn't know why..

5:10 that night

Emily was pacing, Justin was supposed to be there ten minutes ago. Mike was answering questions with the police. Emiky sat down on a bench. Then got back up and started pacing again.

"Hey luv" Justin said, Emily jumped.

"Where is Skylar!" Emily was panicking "What did you do with her!" Emily was frantically looking around for her.

"Calm down, she is over there"

"Skylar!" she ran over to her daughter. She hugged her for a few moments, they walked over to her car.

"Not such a bad father now am I," Justin teased

"Before you give yourself credit, it was one day."

Miranda was on the opposite side of the park, she was there with Leo and Patricia. Leo was playing with the dog. Then she noticed Emily screaming at some guy. Miranda was quite curious as to who he was.

Leo was just staring at Emily and Skylar, he looked like he was admiring them both. He had a major crush on Emily. And everybody in the office teased her about it.

Monday

Emily was beet red, Leo looked upset, and Serena, Nigel, and Andrea's faces were red from trying to keep in their laughter.

"What's going on?" Miranda asked

"Emily broke Leo's heart" Nigel said

"What?" Miranda asked, Emily was near purple with embarrassment.

"Emily's boyfriend came into the office to give her something, and Leo walked in right when Mike kissed her before he left." Serena said.

The rest of the day Leo was extremely sad, he was heartbroken over Emily.

That night,

Emily

Emily and Mike started fighting again, while Skylar was asleep, the fight was coming for a long time though. They both had their insecurities, and didn't feel like they deserved each other. They had been struggling with that for a long time, even before Mike had gone to war.

When Skylar was at Justin's that week they were screaming at each other.

He yelled at her about Dylan, they were hanging out more. And Mike thought that Dylan was after Emily, he was scared that Dylan was waiting for Emily, or would eventually make problems for the both of them, and try to get them to split up, so he could have her.

"He is just a friend!" Emily yelled

"I don't care, do you see the way he looks and talks to you?" Mike replied, Emily looked confused. "He looks and talks to you like I did in high school,"

They had fights before, but not ever this much, Emily was afraid that he was going to leave her. But she wondered what they would do to work out their problems.

Fine!" Mike threw up his hands, and he grabbed his suitcase.

"Where are you going?" Emily asked

"I'm going to Luke's house, i'll be back tomorrow" Emily's heart sank, they were keeping from thrashing it out at each other all week because of Skylar. And it resulted into this, Mike was convinced that Emily was cheating on him with Dylan, because of how he talks to her. He talks to her like Mike used to when he first came back.

"I'm tired of fighting, I'm going to hang out with him for a night." Mike

Sorry if this is too out of the blue, but I want to get the story on track. Thank you for reading.