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“I see. Can you tell me about it?”
“Yeah, he, uh, pushed me into the door frame, and when I fell, he kicked me in the ribs.”
“Could you remove your shirt and lie on the bed so I can have a look?”
I pull my shirt off reluctantly. I’m not wearing a bra, so I hold my arm in front of my breasts. I jump when her cold fingers touch my side.
“Sorry, I should have warmed my hands up first. Is all this bruising from that attack?”
“No, there’s some from a few days before that.”
“How often was he hitting or hurting you?”
“It varied. Sometimes once or twice a week, sometimes he’d go months without hurting me physically.”
“Was he abusive in other ways?”
“Yes. In all ways.” I keep my eyes fixed on the wall behind her in an attempt to keep myself held together.
She frowns and nods, pressing against me in a different spot that causes me to cry out in pain. “I’m so sorry,” she says softly.
“Liv?” Sawyer pushes the door open, stepping inside with frantic eyes.
“Sawyer,” I squeak as I lift my hands to cover my breasts again.
“Fuck, sorry.” The words leave his lips, but his eyes stay on me. A mixture of emotions flits across his face as he looks me over. I can see the worry in his eyes at how thin I am, and then the anger hits as he notices all the bruises. He storms in, fury wafting off him in waves. I should be scared, if he were Tripp, I would probably curl in the fetal position at this outburst, but I’m oddly calm. “Did he do that?”
I nod, my eyes never leaving his.
“I’m—”
“You’re going to leave the room so I can finish the examination.” Dr. Lawson steps between us. “I won’t tolerate you upsetting my patient.”
“Liv,” he looks over her shoulder at me, “we’re talking about this. Today.”
“Brutes,” she says as soon as he leaves. “Good luck with those boys. I’d really like to see you come in for some x-rays, but Sawyer has already said he doesn’t want you to leave the apartment for the time being.” She pulls off the gloves she was wearing. “I’m fairly certain you have at least two broken ribs, but if you’ve managed so far, you’ll probably be okay. I want you to call if anything starts to hurt worse or feel different—if you start having shortness of breath or anything.”
“I can do that.”
She pulls out a bottle of pills and hands them to me. “Take one of these, with food, every four hours for pain.”
“Is this legal?” I ask, completely puzzled as to why she wouldn’t just give me a prescription. “For you to give me pain meds like this?”
“Legal?” She tilts her head as she looks at me. “How well do you know these boys?”
“We were friends a long time ago... Incredibly close friends.”
“Well, you might have things to tell them but make sure they fill you in on their activities, too, okay?”
“Yeah,” I pull the hoodie back over my head, “I will.”
“I’ll come by in a few days to check on you. In the meantime, don’t hesitate to reach out.”
“Thank you.”
I take a few minutes to steel myself for the inevitable conversation with Sawyer. Now that he’s seen the state of my body, I know the urgency is only going to increase for me to open up. I just need another day before I give them the whole dirty, awful story.
4
