AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Let me help you.”
“I don’t need your help.”
“You do.” I go to her, adjust the pillows. I’m careful not to touch her and grit my teeth when she winces, hissing through her teeth as she sits up against them. She looks at her arm, the bandage on the back of her hand where the IV was connected. There’s a tiny bruise where the needle had gone in.
“Where are my pills?” she asks, glancing at the empty nightstand.
“After breakfast,” I tell her. It’s aspirin, just a low dose of aspirin.
“I need them.”
“After breakfast, Mercedes.” I walk toward the chair where my clothes from yesterday have been folded. I pull on my sweater.
“I need the pills. It hurts.”
“You’ll get them after breakfast. The doctor said it’s time to wean you off.”
Her forehead furrows. “It’s just a week ago.”
I shake my head. “Two weeks and a day now.”
“Two weeks?”
I nod.
She looks upset by this. Upset and confused.
“Theron is gone. He won’t hurt you again.”
At the mention of his name her eyes fill up and she clenches the sheet, shifting beneath it. How much does she remember? How much of what he did to her. Of what I did to him.
“Where’s Lois?” she asks and I’m relieved.
“Would you like me to go get her?”
She nods, looks away from me like she can’t quite hold my gaze.
I bow my head and walk out of the room to find Lois just coming up the stairs. “She wants you.”
Lois stops when she sees my face but doesn’t say anything. I wait by the door as Lois enters.
“Sweetheart,” Lois sits on the edge of the bed and brushes Mercedes’s hair from her face. Mercedes is obviously comforted by her, and I wonder about the affection she’s had in her life. None from her father, that I know. Was her mother affectionate? I know Antonia is a kind, sweet woman. But I also know Mercedes is fairly stand-offish with her. “How are you feeling?”
She shrugs a shoulder. “I need to use the bathroom,” she says in a low voice.
Lois nods, looks at me. I hurry back into the room to carry her, but Mercedes’s eyes widen in panic, and I stop.
“It’s okay,” Lois says. “I can’t carry you. Judge needs to do that, okay?”
“Then I can walk.”
“You can’t. Not on your own,” I say and go toward the bed although at a slower pace.
She pushes the covers off and tries to swing her legs over the edge as if to show she can, but she very clearly cannot.
“I won’t hurt you,” I say and lift her before she can refuse. She has no choice but to hold me and once we’re in the bathroom I let Lois help her and step out. A few minutes later, the door opens, and I carry Mercedes back to the bed. She keeps her face averted.
“I’ll get your breakfast. Give me just a few minutes.” Lois says.
