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I chuckled. “That’s Carol. Always looking out for me.”
She nodded. “Me too. And Amethyst, please know that I swore her to secrecy, so don’t be upset with her for not telling you,” she said.
I shook my head. “I’m not. And besides, who could stay mad at Carol for long?”
“No one,” she responded, her smile matching my own.
I went quiet again, then met her eyes. “Tell me about it,” I whispered.
She knew exactly what I meant. I could tell from the clouds that covered her eyes, could see her breathing deep, try to push them away.
“After the ‘accident,’ I woke up in a hospital. But not one that I had ever been to before. It took four solid days for me to get answers.”
“What happened?”
“They kept me drugged. Every time I woke up, another injection to put me back under. And then one day I woke up, and he was there.”
She didn’t need to elaborate on who he was, but to my surprise, my reaction was almost nothing.
I had wasted all the time I ever would on Raphael James.
Right now, I was more concerned about her.
“He smiled at me. You know the one,” she said, giving me a knowing look.
I nodded. I knew that smile well, though it no longer had any power over me.
“It hit me then that I was in trouble. Big trouble,” she said.
She leaned back in the chair, and I could sense that she was going back there. She was here with me but also had a foot in the past.
“He said that he appreciated all that I had given him. And that he hoped I enjoyed a long and healthy life.”
She leaned back in the chair, breathed out a deep sigh.
“And that was the last I saw of him,” she said.
“What happened?” I asked.
“I got very familiar with Thorazine. And later Seroquel. Spent probably two decades not on this planet. It’s a wonder I have what sanity I do have,” she said.
“And how did you make it?” I asked.
“You. And a quest for revenge,” she said.
I smiled, and she returned the gesture but then quickly sobered.
“It was a nightmare. Something more than a nightmare. But I swore that I would not die there.”
“You are so brave. I can’t even imagine…”
She shook her head. “I’m not brave. But there are some things you’ll do anything for. Some people,” she said.
She looked to her left, and I followed her gaze to the balcony where she watched Davit and the baby.
“I have to admit, that’s not how I saw that shaking out,” she said.
“What do you mean?”
