Page 10 of That Emerald Vow

My veins ice over as thoughts intrude my head and I’m reminded thatI’m not special and will never be. And that the last person I trusted who called me that . . . well, he ruined me for good.

The alarm on my phone starts to beep, signaling that I need to get back to work. I stand up, straighten out my scrub shirt and wiping off the imaginary dirt—just like my mother taught me. “You must always be presentable, Charlotte. Everyone is always watching . . . judging.”

“Especially you, Mother,” I mutter under my breath. Before walking towards the exit, I look down at my phone one last time to see his message. My heart constricts at the thought of whatever friendship is forming here.I can’t do this right now.

I close my phone and put it on DO NOT DISTURB before heading back to work, focusing on my patients and not the handsome man sneaking his way into my thoughts.

Bzzzz . . . Bzzzz . . . Bzzzz . . . Bzzzz . . . Bzzzz . . .

“UGH!” I grunt as I blindly slap my hand onto my mahogany nightstand in search of my phone. “Who the fuck is calling me?” I didn’t get home from my shift until eight this morning. And it’s currently 10 AM according to my phone, which has “Vivian Thatcher is calling . . .” displayed on the screen.

I groan louder before answering. “Hello, Mother,” I say, making sure to keep my tone neutral.

“Charlotte, good, you’re awake.”I am now,I think as I sit up in my bed.“I was afraid you would still be asleep. Such a nasty habit, to sleep in.”

Not when you work three overnight shifts in a row it isn’t.I roll myeyes, thankful that this is a phone call and not an in-person conversation. “What can I do for you, Mother?” I ask, not able to contain my frustration.

She audibly scoffs, “Don’t you dare take that tone with me, young lady. I raised you better than that.”

“I’m sorry.” I shift unconsciously, sitting up straighter, even though she can’t see me.

“Hmm.” My imagination can easily conjure up exactly how she looks right now, with her custom, tailored pantsuit, not a hair out of place as her lips are formed into a thin, disapproving line. “I was calling to make sure you remember your father’s birthday is coming up.”

“Yes, I have already planned for the time off.” She may not agree, but my mother has trained me well. I may defy her in all the ways that count, now that I’m not living under her regime, but some things have been ingrained into me from a young age.

“Good. Demetri will be joining us as well, and . . .” she says, but hervoice fades off into the abyss after I hearhisname. I was really hoping death would have found my mother’s brother or me before we ever had to cross paths again. Especially after what happened a few months ago.

“Why is he coming? He and Dad don’t like each other,” I hesitantly ask.

“Your father may not always see eye to eye with Demetri, but he is family. And we always stick by family,” she taunts.Unless the family is me . . . You never stuck by me.

She continues, letting out a deep sigh. “I need you to remember that your childish, made-up stories better not be an issue. It is your father’s day, and he deserves to have a civilized dinner.”

I open my mouth to object, but what’s the point? “Yes, Mother.”

She continues the conversation, informing me of the preparations for the birthday dinner, and I can’t help but dissociate. While one part of my consciousness is answering my mother’s never-ending questions, the other part of me is curled into a ball in a dark room—absolutely numb.

When I finally get off the phone, I decide to text Lily to see if she’s up for some crime-fighting fun tonight. After learning of the impending doom of seeing my uncle again, I could use some de-stressing in the form of pummeling my fists into an unsuspecting predator.

I know Lily would jump at the opportunity to help cover up an accidental death coming tohim, but it’s a chapter of my life and the devil of my story that I try to avoid at all costs. My family’s outlook has always been to brush everything under the rug and pretend it’s all okay—be perfect. So, even though I know he deserves to be punished for his wrongs, some part of me can’t bring myself to serve that justice.

Looking at us, you’d just think we’re two, simple, do-gooders trying to help the world through our professions. However, what people don’t know is that after one night that went too far, we started to hunt down men like the ones who tried to take everything from us. We have a running filing system of known and suspected predators in our area, and we are slowly taking them down one by one. Since Lily’s return, our current big target is the assassin-for-hire organization called “X.” It’s proving to be more difficult than we initially thought it would be.

Unfortunately, Lily responds back saying she has a date with Adrian, but shes open to going out tomorrow night. I can’t help but push out my bottom lip and proceed to check my other messages—knowing sleep will evade me now. And even if I do fall asleep, it will be riddled with nightmares of my childhood.

Damon sent me another message while I slept, and my heart flutters in my chest as my eyebrows and nose scrunch in confusion at the feeling. When I open the message, I see he sent me a message of an Instagram carousel of foxes. In the first one, it’s a cute baby fox, but as you scroll, you see how vicious and clever that tiny fox is.

Damon:

I saw this and thought of you. Lovely on the outside, but a beautiful force to be reckoned with on the inside.

My eyes fill with foreign tears as my heart constricts again. I’m not used to being seen with such intensity. The only person who gets the honor of knowing the real me is Lily. She is the only person in the world I trust. But Damon, even with one meeting and a few random messages, is making me feel things that I locked away in a box—vowing to never let out.

I open up the search bar in the app to find images and scroll until I find the perfect picture: a baby raccoon sticking his head out of a trash can. My lips curve up in a smile as I hit the little arrow and send it to Damon.

Me:

And this little trash panda reminds me of you! ;)

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