Emma was silent for several seconds, because while she had discussed it in therapy before this, it was still an act that haunted her, even if she hadn't had a choice back then, either. Finally, she started to talk. "It was a year ago. Her name was Piper Shaw, and...she was my half sister." Which to Emma somehow made it worse, even if she hadn't known who she was at the time.
"She...had come to town to torment our mom, and cyberstalked me, threatened me and my friends, killed some of them. We were at my friend Brooke's for a party she was throwing and everyone ran off when they got freaked out by screaming and people dying, and Piper cornered my mom and me on the dock of this lake out there. Audrey was there too, and Piper stabbed me, and was going to kill me and then my mom, but Audrey shot her and she fell in the lake. We thought she was dead, and we were about to get up and call the police, when she suddenly lunged at us, and I just grabbed the gun and shot her in the head without even hesitating."
Absently, she rubbed her temple in the center of her forehead, the same place where she'd shot Piper. "I had to do it, or she would've killed all three of us. She planned to pin all of the murders on me, and would've told the police that she had to kill me to save herself after I killed my mom." Looking up at Hannibal again, Emma wrapped her arms over herself almost defensively.
"I had no choice." But knowing that didn't keep the nightmares away, or stop her from feeling sick every time she thought about it. "When Kieran...he'd come to town with her and pretended to like me so I'd trust him, and became my boyfriend to get close...when he tried to do the same thing to me and Audrey eight months ago, I didn't kill him. I had the chance, but I wouldn't do it. I let the cops arrest him." But a part of her still thought she could have done it, maybe. Sometimes, her nightmares were of her being the one who did kill him, when he was at the courthouse.