Wake Me Up (Love Knows No Boundaries)

by Michelle Horst

  Gran is grinning. And then my father comes out, and Aiden stiffens in front of me. Can this get any worse?

  “Old man,” Mum sneers. Oh bloody hell, she’s sneering! “Come meet Emma’s soon-to-be fiancé. He’s come to take our daughter away.”

  My mother smiles at Aiden. She never smiles like that. My dad looks if someone has pulled a rug from under him, and this whole thing is just a bloody circus. It’s getting out of control. I feel lightheaded. I press my palm to my forehead and it feels ice cold. I think I’m going to faint.

  I glance at Aiden as he walks toward my dad. That little muscle is jumping in his jaw. He’s angry. Everyone is upset.

  “Mr. Walker,” Aiden says, without any trace of friendliness in his voice. “Detective Aiden Holden.” His shoulders are straight as he meets my father eye to eye.

  And then it hits me. Aiden is here, and he’s standing up to them. He’s doing what I can’t. Aiden is really here! He’s not scared of them. The pain in my chest starts to fade away as I realize this. There’s not much they can do while he is here. I’ll worry again once he is gone.

  “Welcome,” my dad says in his quiet way. He’s not much of a talker. He’s not much of anything.

  “Now love, please help me get to a chair,” Gran says, and I move, thankful for the diversion.

  ~*~

  It is a horrible long lunch. I can’t eat. Everything gets stuck in my throat. I shove the food from one side to the other. I do as I’m told. I dish up. I clear the table. I do the dishes bloody fast to get them done, and almost die when Aiden wants to help. We take my gran back to the retirement village, and I can’t stop thinking about the damage control I have to do on the way back home. I know I have to go talk to my mother, she’s been glaring at me all through the lunch.

  The second we get hom I make Aiden some coffee and guide hin in the direction of the lounge.

  “Can you excuse me for one moment,” I ask. “Have a seat. I won’t be long. I just need to check on something.”

  I avoid his eyes, feeling guilty for leaving him and rush into my mother’s room. Dread pulses through my body with every beat of my heart. I want to run back to Aiden, but I push through and walk towards the sunroom - it feels like a Death Chamber, where my executioner is waiting for me.

  “Mum, can I fill Mum’s glass?” I ask meekly. By her response I’ll be able to tell how much trouble I’m in.

  Her smile vanishes like mist before the sun. She doesn’t even look at me. “No.”

  “Is there anything else I can do for Mum?” I try again.

  “Until what time will he be staying?” Her voice sounds like pieces of glass, and they cut deep. She wants Aiden gone right now – and then I am dead.

  “I’ll tell him to leave,” I say, my voice trembling as much as my insides.

  I rush out the room, by heart beating in my ears. I don’t know how to tell him without being rude.

  As I round the corner I almost walk into him, where he’s pacing impatiently. He stops and the look on his face can only be described as anger. He reaches for me, pulling me safely into his arms. I can’t take much more of this rollercoaster – the one second I’m scared to death of my mother - and the next I feel so safe with Aiden.

  “Can we go now?” Aidan asks.

  “Go where?” I ask, surprised.

  “Anywhere but here, my hotel room,” he says, holding me tighter when I try to pull away.

  “Someone might come around the corner,” I say, panicking that my mother might see us like this.

  “So? I meant what I said,” he whispers.

  “I don’t want to give her more ammo, please,” I beg. I’m torn in two. I want to curl against him, but he has to go, and then I’ll be left with her.

  He tilts his head and looks sad as he holds my eyes. Then he shakes his head as determination settles over his face. “Go pack,” he says. Just like that.

  “What?” I blurt out.

  “You heard me,” he says, “Go get your things. You’re leaving with me. There’s no way in hell I’m leavin’ you here.”

  “I can’t just leave. She’ll…” I stammer. His mouth lifts at the corner, and he waits.

  “She’ll what? Cut you off? She can’t hurt you if you come with me, Emma.”

  I shake my head. “She won’t take me back a second time. She said so. If I go and you realize I’m a mistake, something-” He frames my face, leaning in closer.

  “Shhh … no, never. Don’t say that, you’re not a thing. You matter. You’re a precious being,” he says, his breath warming my lips. “I want to marry you. Say you’ll marry me, Emma.”

  I can’t believe he just said it. He just said he wants to marry me. He went straight from the F to the M word in one day!

  But that same voice that’s been telling me I’m not good enough for him, tells me not too read to much into it. This is what he does, he saves people. He just wants to help me, and this is the only way right now.

  Nervous laugher bubbles up in me. “She’s going to have a royal fit.” I’m confused. I don’t know what else to say. I really want to go with him. I don’t want to stay here with her.

  “I’ll handle her,” he whispers against my lips. “Go pack. You don’t listen to a word she says. You only listen to me. Only I matter in your world. Only we matter. Only you matter.”

  I nod and force a shaky smile to my lips, they feel stretched thin. He’s come into my hell and he’s faced my demon. Now I have to face her. I have to learn how to be strong, or else everything he’s done is for nothing. I have to believe that Aiden won’t let me down. He’s nothing like my mother. I have to trust him.

  I take his hand and walk to the spare room. I open the cupboard door and take out the suitcase. When I flip it open, I look at the clothes still in it, the summer ones from when I went to America. Aiden takes my passport, and I watch as he puts it in his pocket.

  In that moment, it feels like he’s taking control. I let him take control.

  “Change your shirt,” he says, “and put on a jacket.”

  And I do, because it now matters what Aiden says and thinks, no longer my mother.

  I slip the strap of my laptop bag onto my shoulder. It was a gift from Gran when I started studying. There is no way I’m leaving it behind.

  I look at him, steeling myself for what’s to come.

  “You’ll be fine. Let me handle her,” he says.

  “Yes, Aiden.”

  He leans down and kisses my forehead. I take the strength he’s giving me.

  ~*~

  I want to crumple under the humiliation! Taking Aiden through my parents’ bedroom to get to the sunroom is a whole new level of embarrassment. They had the sunroom build on, a place for them to sit and relax – just another Throne room, if you ask me.

  My face can give the sun a good go, it’s flaring up that badly. They don’t notice us immediately. They look like an ordinary family, from where I’m standing.

  “Mrs. Walker.” Aiden’s voice is cold. I’ve never heard it like that before.

  My eyes dart to my mother, then back to his face. That day at the beach, when I said I got a glimpse of what it felt like seeing Aiden the detective – I was wrong. He was still being nice then. This is the detective, and I never want to be on his wrong side.

  My mother slowly lifts her eyes, glaring at Aiden. I know that look well. He doesn’t wait for a response from her.

  “We are leaving. You might want to say goodbye to Emma.”

  I can’t breathe. Really! I can’t. My mother’s eyes jump to the suitcase, and it’s a bloody shitfest.

  “You’re what?” she sneers. “You’re leaving? You’re not going anywhere.” She gets up and points at Aiden. “You, on the other hand, are!”

  Her eyes take on that beady look, and her face goes stone hard.

  Barry jumps up. “Calm down, Mum,” he says.

  “Don’t tell me what to do, Barry. This is my house, and here my word is law. Emma is my daughter, a
nd he’s not going to poison her against me,” she snaps.

  Aiden moves to stand in front of me. I suck in a painful breath. I need to try and calm her as well. “He’s not, Mum.”

  “Emma,” Aiden says, “let me handle this.”

  I peek up at him, then at my mother, and I think I’m going to be sick. I grab hold of his arm, and I try to focus on something else, the ink underneath his shirt, just beneath my fingers. I wish I could see it now.

  “Mrs. Walker,” he starts. I cling harder and press my face to his arm so I don’t have to see her. “Emma is not yours. She’s twenty-three, a grown woman. She has a life, one she’s going to live with me. She doesn’t need y’all’s permission. Emma has me,” he says. He faces my mother head on, and my vision goes dark around the edges as I press my face into him.

  “You do not come into my house and talk to me like that!” she spits.

  Oh God, please help. I know exactly what she looks and smells like now. Her face is distorted with anger and alcohol.

  “Mum,” Barry says.

  “Take your hands off me!” she screams at Barry, and I snap my head up. She’s never raised her voice to Barry before. She points her finger at me, her whole body is shaking with anger and I shrink back behind Aiden. “If you leave here you are dead to me. Dead.”

  “Mum?” I whimper.

  “Don’t call me that! You don’t know the meaning of the word,” she hisses.

  “That’s enough,” Aiden’s voice is deadly soft. He takes a step back and I stumble. His arm goes firmly around me, and he stops me from falling.

  I blink, and prickles run over my head. I watch my mother turn her back to me. Barry’s shaking his head at me, and my father is just staring ahead of him.

  I drop my eyes to the floor. Aiden’s arm is tight around me, and I walk with him. I don’t pick up the suitcase. I don’t want anything from this house. I don’t even want the last bit of air to breathe, so I hold my breath as long as I can, until I’m outside, and then I gasp at the fresh, cold air.

  ~*~

  Aiden takes me straight back to his hotel room. It’s nice. It’s all I can take in at the moment. Oh, and it’s warm. There are flowers, too.

  I stand in the small lounge, looking into the bedroom. I stand with my hands clutched to my chest, because I’m trying to keep my heart from breaking.

  When I close my eyes, I see the image of my mother turning her back on me like a horror movie stuck on replay. I can’t believe she did that. She really didn’t love me, not even a little bit. I can’t believe I still had hope after all these years, that maybe she could love me, if I just kept trying every day. I must be the biggest fool.

  When Aiden comes out of the room, his jacket is gone. He’s wearing a black sweater and my eyes zoom in on his arm as he pushes the sleeves up to his elbows. I can finally see some of the ink curling around his arm.

  He walks right at me, and I keep still as his eyes lock onto mine. I can’t tell if he’s still upset. I am, so I’m guessing he is. I feel hollowed out, as if someone had taken a blunt object and dug out every last piece of me. His arms fold around me and he draws me against his chest, locking my arms between us.

  “Tell me what you’re thinkin’?”

  I have no words of my own so I repeat his, “I need someone to wake me up when this is all over. It’s too hard.”

  “Okay,” he whispers. “You wanna go sleep a little, and we’ll talk some more when you wake up?”

  “Please,” I whisper. I’m starting to feel like a zombie. My eyes won’t blink when I want them to. All I can do is stare.

  I don’t know how I get to the bed. I can’t remember walking to it.

  I only remember feeling gut-wrenchingly sick.

  ~*~

  Chapter Twenty Two

  Aiden~

  She hasn’t fallen asleep yet. She just stares. I expected her to look like this after they kidnapped her for a whole damn week, not after I save her from her mother.

  I don’t understand. She was strong then. She didn’t blink when they could’ve done God-knows-what to her, but now that she’s free, she’s breaking.

  Emma’s body suddenly jerks. Just once.

  “Emma?” I say, a little too loudly, and I push away from the wall where I’ve been standing, watching her.

  “Yes,” she croaks. She starts to blink rapidly.

  “Talk to me, sweetheart,” I say. I kneel next to the bed so I can be eye level with her.

  “She never loved me. Not even a little.” She starts to cry, her breaths coming out in quick little puffs, and it makes my heart break for her. “I tried so hard to do everything she wanted. I just wanted her to love me. Just one percent of what she loves Barry. If she could just once have looked at me the way she looked at him.”

  I slide onto the bed and pull her into my arms. I cradle her against my chest, tucking her head in under my chin, and I let her cry everything out. I don’t talk. I just hold her, caressing her back, then her hair.

  “What makes me so unlovable?” she croaks.

  “No, sweetheart. No. You’re plenty lovable. You’re so easy to love. Just look at me,” I whisper into her hair, “I started lovin’ you from the first moment I saw you, and I’ll be lovin’ you in this life and beyond.”

  “It hurts so much, Aiden.” My eyes burn with tears for her. “It hurts to hate her.”

  I hold her for a long while. I think of ways I’ll have to teach her how life is really meant to be.

  “You wanna put on one of my shirts?” It’s starting to get late. “We’ll go get you some clothes tomorrow morning, first thing.”

  She pushes away from me and her face is blank. I can’t read her.

  “Sure. Thank you.” Her voice is emotionless, I can’t pick up anything, and it’s starting to worry me. I lean forward and tip her face up to mine.

  “Hey, you?” There’s nothing. She’s switched off. It’s like she’s not in there any more. “Don’t do that. Come back. Don’t go hidin’. It doesn’t help you don’t deal. It’s just all gonna pile up on top of you.”

  She gets up and walks to the bathroom, as if she’s in a daze. I hear her open a faucet, and then I hear a thud. I walk to the bathroom, and when I see her hitting at the wall I rush forward. I pin her arms in mine and she fights me, thrashing wildly. Her breaths are strangled, and I take us to the ground, so I can pin her body better.

  She fights for a good few more seconds before she curls into me, crying hard. She needs to, she’ll feel better afterwards.

  ~*~

  I get her into one of my shirts. She curls into a small fetal position, and I frame her with my body. I watch Emma sleep and I wait, but she doesn’t have a nightmare.

  I wake up to soft kisses trailing over my chest. Her fingers and mouth are tracing my tattoo.

  “How do you feel?” I decide to test the waters first.

  “I’ve just woken up next to the man I love. I’m getting to kiss him. I’m going to see you today. That makes me happy.” I can hear she means it.

  I swallow hard. She lost her family yesterday. She gave herself only one night to mourn them.

  “It’s okay if you’re sad, Emma.”

  She looks up at me, smiling. “I know, but some really smart bloke once told me time is precious. I can’t change yesterday. It doesn’t help to worry about tomorrow, my worrying won’t change the outcome. So I’m going to enjoy now, this second I have with you.”

  As great as it sounds, as strong as she sounds, I can’t help but worry about her. How much can she take before she’ll break?

  There’s another thing that’s been worrying me since I saw the weight she’s lost. And the fact that Emma didn’t have a nightmare just adds to the worry. “Did she start you on the Toplep again?” I hold my breath as I wait for her answer.

  “She tried. I didn’t take them.” She looks right at me. “I just ate less so she wouldn’t notice, but I didn’t take them. I promise.”

  I grind my teeth to ke
ep my anger in. I take a deep breath as I pull her down, back into my arms.

  “All that matters now is that I have you. I can finally take care you. It’s just us from here one out.”

  ~*~

  After breakfast I find her on the balcony. I’m just about to ask her if she’s ready to go shopping when I see the phone pressed to her ear. My heart stops.

  “Chloe, stop. I’m really sorry I wasn’t there for you,” she says.

  I don’t know if I should be relieved that it’s not her mother, or, damn, I don’t know what? She’s going through hell and she still apologizes for not being there for someone else?

  “I’m all right. Really.” She takes a breath. “I have something to tell you, but I need you to promise not to get angry with me.”

  I frown. Her mother really did a number on her. She’s scared of other people’s opinions?

  “I’m…” She swallows hard. “Aiden’s here. He stood up to my mother and-”

  I hear her blow out a breath.

  “Really? Yes. Yes, I’m with him now.” She laughs, and it sounds good. I take it Chloe’s response was a good one. “I’m going back with him.” She blurts the words out fast, and cringes as she waits for the response.

  “Don’t cry.” Her voice cracks, and I can’t stand still. “I’ll phone you. We’ll text every day, like we always do.”

  I walk out onto the balcony, but before I can put my arms around her she grabs hold of my shirt and buries her face against my chest.

  “We’ll be friends forever,” she mumbles against me. Her shoulders jerk and I hold her tighter. “I’ll let you know what happens. I promise. You know you’re the best, right?”

  I think they’re finished, cause she curls into me. A few seconds later she lifts her head, giving me a wavering smile. I don’t know how she does it, where does she put the pain?

  “Let me just wash my face,” she says, looking uncomfortable.

  “You don’t have to hide what you feel from me. I want you to share the good and the bad with me.”

  She smiles again, nodding. I think she’s so used to hiding what she feels that it’s going to take a lot of hard work from my side to get her to open up.