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👫 Who would you put before everyone else?
"Myself.” Nobody had ever put Emma first. Her mother put her own selfish anger before the care of her daughter. Her father put his own freedom over concern for his daughter. Emma had learned early on that nobody would see her needs or wants above their own, so she would have to do it herself. Emma came first, and damn all those who tried to hold her back.
⌚ If you could go back in time, what advice would you tell yourself when you were sixteen?
As selfish as it sounded to put herself first, Emma would tell her younger self to not put her more selfish needs above the happiness she could have had. “You’re going to want what you once had, but what you’ll risk to get it isn’t worth it. Don’t bother. Get angry with them if you have to, cry if you have to, but don’t stoop to low levels to get on the pedestal you thought you should have been on. It’ll be better off that way, just trust me. Take whatever else you want in life, just not that.”
🤗 If you could get a hug right now from anyone you know, who would it be from?
“Ted,” she answered definitively. “He gives the best hugs.” No matter what mood she was in, she seemed to find what she needed in his arms. Validation when she was angry, comfort when she was sad, celebration in rare moments of joy. It was also just a reminder that someone else could be there for her when others had turned away, or rather when she’d chased some others away. Sometimes, in his arms, there was a fleeting thought that maybe, one day, everything could be alright. If only he could hold her there forever.
💢 If you could erase someone’s existence from your life, who would you choose?
The answer was easy, and Emma scoffed at the nerve to even ask such a question. There was only one person responsible for the ruin in her life. One set of hands that wrung all assets from her mother and hung her out to dry. One set of eyes that peered over her shoulder at every turn, reminding her of the larger-than-life presence that could do worse to her than her mother had ever suffered. In his presence she forgot how monstrous he was. When he was not in the room, she could remember every step he had ever taken in boiling her blood. She didn’t want to kill him. She knew his presence was responsible for holding the city in balance. But, she couldn’t say the lack of his presence wouldn’t make her life easier. “Tom Riddle.”
