Persistence

Chapter 9

Emma stared out the window of Scott’s irritatingly bright yellow Ferrari. She couldn’t look at him; the smug grin covering his face burned in her mind. She hated that smile, the same one he wore with pride every time he managed to get her alone. He knew about the baby, and he sure as hell didn’t try to hide that fact. It made his sickening expression widen with self satisfaction.
“I hope it’s a boy...” Scott said as he turned his head towards her when he stopped at a red light in the city on his way to god knows where.
Emma remained silent.
“Emma…?” Scott stared at her half covered face. She was obviously attempting not to cry and had let her hair fall over her face to hide it.
“Emma, love, I have to ask you something.”
“What?” She snapped at him before he even finished the word something. It annoyed her that he wouldn’t seem to just let her remain in her own world even for a few moments.
“Emma, will you marry me?”
“When fucking hell freezes over!” She screamed at him, shooting a lethal glare at him.
“Don’t be difficult, honey.”
“Don’t call me honey.” She spat at him, crossing her legs and facing the window again.
“Fine, I won’t call you honey, but I will always tell you I love you.”
“You disgust me.” She continued to stare aimlessly out through the window, ignoring the fact that Scott was still gazing at her fear-stricken face.
Aiden was waiting to make a turn, heading to the hospital to make one last attempt at explaining himself. He noticed the bright yellow Ferrari across the intersection.
“Prick, if you’re that fucking rich, you don’t have to remind everyone else of it every damn place you go.” He mumbled.
He watched as it sped through the intersection after the light changed and rolled his eyes after it disappeared behind him. However, he quickly surfaced back to reality, seeing as he was terrified at what Emma was most likely being told right now. How could he explain this?
Aiden drove farther along and reminisced about what happened after Emma climbed into her car that evening about eight months ago when they had reconciled.
After finally making it to Emma’s apartment building lobby they, holding each other’s hands tightly, raced towards the elevator. Emma was getting inhumanly impatient and began nearly attacking the up button on the wall. Aiden laughed and grabbed her other hand to raise it to his lips and gently kiss it, one kiss for each finger. When he had finished this gesture, the elevator managed to make its way down and open the doors in front of them. Almost tripping, they both plunged into the small elevator and pressed the button for the correct floor number. Also showing Emma’s impatient mood, she hit the close door button right afterwards. The second the doors closed he threw Emma’s fragile body against the cold elevator wall and pressed himself against her. He could feel every groove, every inch of her body, every small detail screaming to him. Their lips touched as one hand placed itself behind her neck as to protect her head while the other wasn’t as good at playing nice and worked its way down her body letting his fingers ease their way to her hip. It was the kind of thing you didn’t have to think about to get right with Emma and Aiden. It just happened, and oh, there were absolutely no mistakes or regrets. Their lips almost pulsed with speed and repetition. Aiden pressed himself closer to his love and ceased kissing her for a moment as he leaned by her ear and whispered “I love you…so much Emma Morrow.” He had been forced to pause to breathe. He was so close to Emma he could feel her heartbeat breaking its way through her chest, racing madly. He could feel every breath she was able to create brush against his cheek. Time seemed to slow down for that moment. Nothing seemed to exist besides their bodies and their actions. Just them, with each other. Their passion for one another dripped aimlessly from their bodies like rain Emma could hardly breathe so when she attempted to speak, the only words she could form were, “I love you too.”
The elevator made that irritating dinging noise, and Aiden scooped Emma up into his arms to make her legs wrap around his muscular frame. She swung her arms around his neck, continuing to passionately kiss lips, making her way down to his neck, navigating downward until he reached into the back pocket of her jeans to unlock her door. After the door opened, he simply dropped the keys on the floor by the entry and closed the door with his foot. They had stopped kissing to breathe and Aiden glanced up at her and smiled and began kissing his love again as he headed for the bed in the next room. Emma had an open concept apartment so there were basically no doors. This made the romantic gesture of being carried a bit easier. Aiden lead the way to her nearby bedroom and when reaching the edge of her bed, he slowly eased her body on it. Starting by sliding his hand down her back so it curved closer to the mattress below and eventually letting her back slowly and carefully fall into place lying on the bed with his body hovering over it like a predator ready to prey on its next victim. She gazed up at his widening smile and the same smile she had forgotten appeared on her sweet face. Emma pulled him close down towards her and kissed him with more passion she knew was physically capable of portraying. Moving her lips down his neck and just behind his ear she whispered, “Take me now.” Aiden reached down to practically rip off her button-down shirt, breaking some buttons from their original place in the process. She knew his weaknesses, and took complete advantage of all of them. He didn’t complain either. Emma worked her hand slowly up his t-shirt and used her thumb to hold the gradually bunching fabric gathering because of it to eventually remove the obstacle. They had never gone this far. Not with anyone. It was a leap of faith for both of them, a night they would never forget. Aiden slid out of his jeans and kicked them behind him to the floor. Emma had been wearing a bra with a snap in the front, and needless to say Aiden took advantage of that particular fact. He gripped his teeth around the metal and whipped his head to the side to force her bra to fling open, exposed.
Aiden’s memory was interrupted by the sound of sirens when arriving at the hospital parking lot. With sudden and growing alarm, he sneaked his car past the policeman’s cars and parked right in front of the hospital lobby doors. Aiden opened the door to his car, slipped out, closed the door with his keys in hand, and walked toward the doors, never being more shaken in his life.
Emma, still staring aimlessly out the window of the car she was trapped in like some sort of prisoner in her own personal hell, her mind racing almost as fast as her heart was. The trees only appeared to her as a meaningless green blur along the side of the abandoned road they were driving down now. They began to pull up closer to a bridge over a small river, when Emma’s head jerked up. She had an idea.
“Are you alright, love?” Scott asked, confused at her sudden movement.
“Um, yes I’m fine. I just thought of something; that’s all.” She replied.
“What are you thinking of?” he inquired.
“Huh?” She paused for about two seconds before realizing what he was talking about again.
”Oh, right, I just forgot whether or not I told Aiden to pick up his dry cleaning this morning.” She said.
“Oh, alright then…You startled me.” He said staring at her golden brown hair still hiding her emotionless face.
“I’m sorry.” She said and tried to focus her mind once again on her plan.
Emma reached casually for the handle to open the passenger door. Curling her finger under the handle, she stared at the hill directly next to the oncoming bridge. The hill was steep, but she was determined she would make it. She hid her hand from the sight of Scott by leaning forward and continuing to stare out of the window next to her in silence. The bridge grew closer and closer, her patience growing thinner and thinner. She would jump to her freedom. It would take him too long to stop the car and get out being able to catch her as soon as usual. The sun was beating down on the grassy hill sideways, as the sun was setting in the balance of it all. Hitting each blade of dew filled grass one by one as it slid closer and closer down, out of sight. The car was now about 10 feet from the bridge, Emma yanked on the handle to the door and it flew open, almost breaking off of the rest of the vehicle completely, and jumped out with her hands crossed over her chest in the shape of an X. Time seemed to slow itself as she leaped for the coming hill beneath her, but there was a flaw in her plan. Her idea was, however, easier said, or in Emma’s case thought, then actually executed. She had not jumped far enough ahead of time to be safe from the edge of the bridge. Her head slammed against the heavy steel frame of the bridge violently, causing Emma to let out a spine chilling scream of the most agonizing pain she had felt in quite a while. However, there was much worse for Emma lying ahead in her fall. There was a gleaming river flowing below the bridge, and the hill was cut off at the top, forming a sort of cliff at its edge. Emma’s body tried desperately to fight back to the steep fall but failing miserably. The air beat furiously against her skin. She could feel the wound on her head throbbing, aching madly, rebelling against the self created wind. She knew what was now coming below her, even though she could not, in fact, see it. It would be excruciatingly painful. Her mind ran through what would happen in an instant. Just as her mind finished, her body forcibly crashed against the sand covered river banks. Emma’s head snapped back angrily and nearly broke her neck, since she landed on her back. Her heels dug into the ground beneath her. She could feel the sand against her legs and arms, but she was slipping out of consciousness fast. She had to fight back. She had to force her body to lift itself up and run, run as far away from Scott as she could, or at least try. It was now clear to her that she could not physically force herself to get up. She tried desperately to make it work, but failed horribly each time. She was numb from head to toe. She heard Scotts booming voice in the distance, but tried to ignore it and get back up on her feet to scramble out of here in all haste. Though she attempted to stop it, she gave in and Emma’s eyes slowly eased their way closed. She had failed.