Chapter 34
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
EMMA
Emma awoke with a start to the sun shining through her bedroom window. Her heart went into overdrive, pumping like she was running up a mountain. She had overslept. No one had opened the bakery. She was in so much trouble.
Wait.
She was fired. She wasn’t late for anything. The sobering fact calmed her down for a millisecond before a host of realizations set in.
Her plan was in motion even though she wasn’t ready for it. Coverage would lapse on her health insurance at the end of the month, and paying a premium out of pocket was going to be one more thing eating into her savings. It was time to take on as many freelance projects as she could handle.
One year from now, if the location scouting and brand building went well, she could launch her custom order bakery. Even if the worst happened and everything fell through, at least cottage food laws would allow her to bake at home and start selling at farmers’ markets until she could try again.
She’d had a business plan for five years. She knew the market and how to run a bakery, thanks to Maya’s colossal neglect. Except for finances, she was as prepared as she could be.
So much was up in the air, out of her control.
It felt impossible. It was going to be a long, lean year.
But hopefully five years down the road, things would be significantly better.
It wasn’t going to be easy, especially in one of the biggest cities in the world and while being her mother’s full-time caretaker, but it was possible.
Shit. And speaking of caretaking, now she had to let her mom’s nurse go. At least that would be one less monthly expense.
She got out of bed and caught a glimpse of the calendar on her way to the bathroom. Her stomach lurched. Today was Leo’s birthday.
Their last interaction had been disastrous. Everything felt unfinished. Was he able to make his proposal to his parents? Would the community get the project it so desperately needed? She wanted to reach out, but she was afraid to learn what damage she might have done.
Her feelings for him had been so sudden and so strong, like a comet streaking across the sky. They had flamed out before even figuring out where anything could go.
It was better to leave him in the past.
She popped her mom’s door open. “You want to go for a walk after breakfast? I need to clear my head.”
It was windy and bitterly cold outside as Emma pushed her mother’s wheelchair down the sidewalk, Arizona and Cooper trotting on either side like security guards.
They were out for some fresh air—as fresh as the air ever got in Brooklyn, anyway—and Emma willed the walk to distract her.
“What about Baked by Emma?” her mom mused. “It’s classic, straightforward.”
“Eh,” Emma said. They’d been throwing around potential business names for the last four blocks, but nothing had felt right.
“You don’t sound super thrilled to be starting your own business,” Lisa said.
“I am. I’m just…distracted.”
“Are you sure there isn’t some other reason? Maybe a six-foot-tall European reason?”
“What? No. That chapter’s over. It just all feels a little overwhelming. That’s all. I’m fine.”
Arizona tugged hard, and Emma pulled to a stop, her heart in her throat. Was it another stroke? A cardiac event?
But no. She had just nearly walked them all out into traffic.
“You don’t sound fine,” her mom prompted.
“It’s just a big adjustment. Crumb and Get It was my whole life for years.”
“I noticed some buzz on their Instagram this morning saying they were closed,” Lisa said smugly.
Several people had posted the dark storefront of the bakery on their social media. It gave Emma a quiet pleasure that Maya was having a hard time reopening.
“Good,” Emma said firmly.
Her phone had positively blown up with texts and calls from Maya, alternating between threats and pleading with her to come back. Emma had finally blocked her, and it was like a grown-woman-sized weight had been lifted from her shoulders.
She was never going back. That much she knew. It was everything else that was still unknown.
“What about Big Apple Bakes?” Lisa offered.
“Ugh, no. Respectfully.”
A man on the opposite curb was staring at them. An expensive-looking camera was slung around his neck. He looked at something on his phone, then looked back at them.
Instinctively, Emma turned and went the other way.
“Aren’t we going to the park?” Lisa asked. She shook a bag of oats meant for the ducks.
“Did you see that guy?” Emma said in a low voice.
“The one with the weird goatee?”
“Yes. He was looking at us. I knew I should have brought the pepper spray.”
“We have two gigantic dogs. We’re fine,” Lisa said, but there was a note of concern in her voice.
Emma glanced over her shoulder. The man hadn’t crossed the street and was now walking parallel to them. Her heart rate ticked up, and Arizona looked at her.
The guy was looking at his phone, seemingly distracted.
They hit another intersection and turned right, back in the direction of home. She glanced over her shoulder when they were a few yards down. No one was behind her. She blew out a long, slow breath.
She was being crazy. They weren’t being followed. It was probably some street photographer or a tourist.
Suddenly, the stranger ran out of the alleyway in front of them and shoved a video camera in her face.
“Emma! Are you dating Prince Leo of Lynoria?”
“What?” she sputtered. A wave of lightheadedness swept over her. The paparazzi had actually tracked her down. Leo said it was a possibility, but how did they even know who she was? It wasn’t like she’d worn a name tag at the ball.
Oh, shit. Maybe the article in Food Magazine? Had it come out already?
Her mind ran a mile a minute. On the off chance that Leo’s project wasn’t already dead in the water, her stirring up rumors would destroy whatever chance he had left.
“No, I’m not,” she said firmly.
“Move aside.” There was a note of authority in Lisa’s voice.
Arizona tugged them forward, and Emma tried to sidle around the man, but he simply walked backward in front of them.
“Sources say the prince was spotted with you several times during your visit. Are you dating long distance?” he asked.
She averted her gaze and reminded herself to take deep breaths. What was he going to do, follow them all the way back to her apartment?
“Are the rumors about the royal family true? Was there an infidelity scandal?” he asked.
Infidelity scandal? That was news to her. Though it wouldn’t particularly surprise her if the queen had taken a lover. Hypocrites were always the loudest protesters.
“Are you the reason your own mother is permanently disabled?” The question hit her like a water balloon filled with acid.
She stopped in her tracks, and the man stared cockily at her. His camera snapped repeatedly.
Cooper barked at him, and he flinched.
“How dare you?” Lisa asked. She put her hands on the arms of the wheelchair and tried to stand, but Emma gently pushed her back down.
Emma put a finger in his face. “If you don’t get out of my face immediately, I will call the police.”
He walked away without another word, smirking.
Her hands shook. How did he know about the stroke? How did he know any of this? There was no way Leo or Lola had sold her out.
Could it have been Maya?
They hustled home as quickly as they could. Worst brainstorming walk ever.
Lisa rattled off an incalculable string of insults on their way back until the door was closed behind them.
“I’m going to buy more pepper spray,” she said as Emma steered her up the ramp and closed the door behind them.
“Not a bad idea,” Emma mused.
They had only been inside for a few minutes when there was an aggressive knock on the door. They both jumped, and Cooper barked like a bomb had gone off.
Lisa glared. “If that’s a reporter, I’ll happily tell them where they can shove their camera.”
“It’s probably a package,” Emma said, but there was a tingle of anxiety in her belly. “You know how Roger knocks like our door has personally offended him.”
“Maybe we should just ignore it,” Lisa said.
Emma retrieved her baseball bat and tiptoed to the door to peer through the peephole. Complete darkness greeted her.
Panic flared. The last time this happened it had been—
“Open up, girls. Daddy’s home.”
The oily, gravelly voice of her father was a sound she had never quite been able to eradicate from her brain.
Lisa gasped. Emma’s hands went numb. He was supposed to be in prison for another five months. She kept tabs on him so that they were able to anticipate when he might come around.
He always wanted something. Usually it was money. It was the only thing that would make him leave, and a big part of the reason why they were in this mess.
This time, there was no money to pay him off with. And they couldn’t afford to move anywhere else. They were trapped in this apartment, where he knew he could find them.
Cooper appeared at her side, growling softly.
“Leave now, or I’m calling the police,” Emma said through the door.
Every cell in her body screamed at her to run—hide. Like she had as a little girl.
“You’re gonna leave your pop out in the cold?” he said, softer this time.
“Leave, Don,” Lisa said. There was a tip-tap of dog toenails, and Emma glanced over her shoulder. Arizona planted herself in front of her mom, back bristling.
“Li-li,” Donald said, and the sound of her mom’s discarded nickname curled Emma’s toes. Her heart was in her throat. He wasn’t going to leave. But the police would take their sweet time getting here for a simple trespasser. What the hell were they going to do?
Emma ducked into the bathroom and hammered on the shared wall. Maybe Bob was home. Silence greeted her from the other side.
She shot a look at her mom and mouthed “Call 9-1-1.”
Lisa nodded and picked up her phone with shaking hands.
“We both know you’re going to let me in,” Don said on the other side of the wall. “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen my girls, and it’s almost Christmas.”
“The police are on their way,” Emma called. Hopefully it was true.
There was a sigh on the other side of the door. “Six grand and I’ll leave right now.” His voice was flat but dripping with a hint of malice.
“No,” Emma said firmly.
“I’m gonna give you one more chance to reconsider.”
“Get the fuck away from this door before I shoot you through it.” Her voice shook.
“Come on, sweetheart. You and I both know you were never the gun type.”
“Things have changed.”
But they hadn’t. Even if she wanted a gun, they couldn’t afford it.
“I know you’ve got the money. You’re dating a prince. My little girl’s gonna be a princess. I have a feeling we’ll be spending more time together.”
Emma’s heart fell into her butt. Of all the complications to come from her entanglement with Leo, she had never even considered that her dad would hear the news in prison.
“I’m giving you to the count of three to reconsider,” her dad called through the door. His voice was different now. Darker. The way it had been after one too many drinks.
She exchanged a panicked look with her mom, then hefted the baseball bat. Her hands trembled.
“One. Two.”
Suddenly, something hit the door with enough force that it wobbled a little. Cooper barked, a booming warning that was promptly ignored.
“Let me in, Emma.”
Smash. Another hit, and a grunt of exertion from the other side. The wood had definitely bowed. Cracks were starting to appear on the surface near the knob.
Their door wasn’t going to hold. She retreated farther into the apartment, putting herself between her mom and the door. Adrenaline was firing in her veins, but she had nowhere to go. They couldn’t go out the back—her mom couldn’t get over the fence. And Emma couldn’t—wouldn’t—leave her behind.
“Are the cops coming?” she asked.
“Yes.” Lisa wheeled herself backward into the kitchen and came back with a knife from the kitchen block. Arizona was her shadow.
They just had to make it until they showed up.
But the last time this happened, it had taken them over twenty minutes to arrive.
He’d never been so angry that he kicked the door down before.
Last time, he had just hung around until Emma was forced to leave the apartment to go to work.
What was different this time? Hard drugs?
A strange sense of doom had set in. Even with a baseball bat in hand, her father was six foot two. It wouldn’t be hard to overpower her. But she was the only thing standing between her mom and him.
“I love you, Mom,” Emma said.
“I love you, sweet girl.” There were tears in Lisa’s eyes as she gripped the kitchen knife.
Another hit landed on the door. The door groaned. The chain snapped. Splinters ricocheted off the wall, and blinding sunlight streamed in.
There he was. Older and grayer than the last time she had seen him, but there was no mistaking the manic glint in his black eyes.
“You little shit.” He charged at her, hands outstretched.
Lisa shrieked, and Emma braced herself, ready to swing.
Crash.
Before she could move, her father crumpled to the ground, shaking the entire apartment. Oh, thank fuck. The police must have arrived.
“Emma?”
Hang on, that voice was familiar.
“Leo?”