Page 26 of Emma
“Hi, miss,” Alice said with a small, nervous smile. “Freya wondered if she could talk to you?”
Something tensed inside Emma. The way they hovered, how they whispered to one another…the reluctance. It naturally sparked concern. Emma’s instincts—honed by years of teaching—picked up on the atmosphere. Something was off. “Of course.”
But Freya immediately back-peddled and shook her head quickly. “N-no. It’s okay. It was nothing. I didn’t need to talk to you. Alice is just being silly.”
Emma studied her for a moment. Freya’s voice was too quick, too…dismissive. Her shoulders were tensed, as though she waspotentially bracing herself for something. Still, Emma didn’t want to push too hard. “Well, if you change your mind, you know where to find me.” Emma offered a reassuring smile. “Okay?”
“Y-yeah. It’s fine. Honestly.”
But Emma wasn’t convinced. Freya’s gaze darted around the corridor, her hands clasped tight together.
Emma stood up and cleared her throat as inconspicuously as she could. “Alice, could you give me a moment alone with Freya, please?”
Alice nodded without hesitation. “Yep. Meet you in the dining hall when the bell rings for lunch.”
She didn’t wait for a response from Freya. A second later, she had breezed down the corridor, leaving a silence in her wake that suddenly felt heavy.
Emma gestured towards the office. “Have a seat. I won’t keep you too long.”
Freya quietly shuffled inside. She didn’t remove her rucksack, just sank into the chair with it still weighing down her back.
Emma lowered her voice, her concern deepening as she stared down at her student. “Is everything okay, Freya?”
Freya’s leg started bouncing nervously. “Yeah. Everything’s fine.”
Emma didn’t believe that for a second. She could see the conflict in the girl’s eyes even without eye contact. “If thereissomething on your mind and you don’t want to speak to me, may I suggest you reach out to your mentor?”
Freya shook her head almost immediately, her gaze now fixed on the carpet. “They won’t understand.”
There was a tremble in her voice that tugged at something deep in Emma’s stomach. What the hell was going on here? Was Freya in some kind of trouble? Surely not.
“Understand what?” Emma asked as she knelt in front of Freya. She didn’t want this conversation to feel intimidating. “I hope you know that you can talk to me. Aboutanythingat all.”
Freya lifted her head. Her expression seemed close to confusion, maybe even disbelief. “Do you have parents called Jane and Will?”
Emma blinked, stunned by the sudden question. Of all the things she thought Freya might be struggling with,thathadn’t even registered as a possibility. The wordparentsfelt like one hell of a stretch for her.
Jane and Will… Emma hadn’t spoken to her father in fifteen years. Not since the day she’d walked out and never looked back. Her mother, well, she’d only seen her once since returning from Ghana. Before that? Maybe seven years of silence. And even that encounter had been a fluke. A chance meeting in town. It was easier to keep her distance. There was no love left to salvage. No home to return to. Her family didn’t fit into the life she’d built for herself, not with Vanessa, or Lauren, or Rob. Not with Daisy.
She steadied her voice as best as she could. “Y-yes, I do.”
Freya offered a weak smile. “Me too.”
Emma’s knees wobbled where she rested in front of Freya. She wasn’t sureanythinghad ever caught off guard quite like those two words had. “I’m sorry?” Her voice, though calm, threatened to betray her. “I don’t understand what you’re saying, Freya.”
“My mum and dad are called Jane and Will, too.” Freya shrugged, her demeanour slightly more at ease now that she’d hit Emma full force with that revelation. But Emma? She was struggling to fill the silence with something that made sense. She looked at Freya, unsure whether to be worried or confused. “I don’t live with them anymore. Carmen and Ben are my new parents. Did you get new parents, too?”
Those words hit Emma like a punch to the gut. She swallowed hard, emotion suddenly lodged in her throat.New parents?Freya’s words hung in the air, but the truth was that Emma hoped they would disappear, and she would be left waking from a dream. Was Freya trying to tell her something? Was there some unspoken connection here that Emma wasn’t understanding?
You felt a connection with her the moment you met!
“I’m sorry to hear that you don’t live with them anymore.” Emma’s voice faltered, but her mind was a blur, trying to piece together this unexpected twist in her life. If this was going where Emma thought it was, she couldn’t show any reaction to it. Not yet. “But no. I don’t have any other parents. Just my birth parents.”
Freya’s eyes were unreadable as she nodded slowly. “It…makes us sisters, Miss Bradley.” Her words were heavy with an intensity that made Emma’s breath catch in her throat. Freya stared at her with a determination in her eyes, as though that was theonlyanswer to any of this. “Why didn’t you live with Carmen and Ben when you were growing up?”
Who the fuck are Carmen and Ben?The question flashed through Emma’s mind.What is going on here?
Freya’s calm expression was entirely opposite to the raging confusion churning inside Emma. She had no siblings. She’d always been an only child. Her family had been a mess with no foundation strong enough to build anything that could possibly last. Jane and Will hadn’t managed to care for her, let alone have another child to take care of. This didn’t add up.
