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Lucas puts his arms around his wife’s waist. “We don’t know the state of her injuries, but it looks like she could have a concussion.”
He’s coating it with a big bag of sugar. Jess might have a concussion and she might have a more serious brain injury. No one has told us anything.
I want to punch a wall. She wouldn’t have been left to fend for herself overnight against the elements if I’d realized yesterday where she’d gone. I had been rescuing Christopher and his father while Jess was injured and alone, not knowing if anyone would find her before it was too late.
Zara’s gaze jumps to something over my shoulder, and she walks past me. I turn to see Samuel, his expression the opposite of what it was yesterday when I ended up here as a patient.
He hugs his sister, who grips him as if he’s her lifeline.
“How is she?” The words power from me, rough and raw.
Samuel looks at each of us in turn, his expression no less somber. But there isn’t the same strain around his eyes he’d had when he told Olivia that Colton hadn’t made it. I allow myself to take a small breath of relief at that. A very small breath.
“She’s back from radiology and is conscious,” he tells us. “She has a concussion, and we want to admit her overnight for observation. She also has bruised ribs, a laceration on her thigh that we’ve stitched up, and she’ll be sore for a while. But she’s lucky things weren’t more serious.”
Dizzying relief rides on a long exhalation, and I barely restrain myself from hugging Samuel. She’s gonna be okay.
He steps toward me and pulls me to the side, away from our friends, and that relief is short-lived. Something about his expression has my insides tightening. Our friends glance our way but get the hint Samuel wants to talk to me alone. They stay where they are.
“Do you have any idea how she got the scars on her body?” His voice is low, preventing anyone else from overhearing the question. Quiet murmurs fill the waiting room that have nothing to do with us, everyone else locked in their own private conversations.
“Scars? You mean other than the two on her face?” The volume of my voice matches his.
“That’s right.”
I frown. “What kinds of scars?”
“I can’t tell you that. I just assumed you’d seen them…” He leaves his words hanging, letting me fill in the blanks. He assumes I’ve seen Jess naked.
He’s halfway correct. She was naked when I had sex with her yesterday morning and the night before. But she’d insisted the lights stay off. Was that because she didn’t want me to see her other scars?
“How bad are they?” How bad are they for Samuel to comment on them?
“It’s not my place to tell you. It’s something she needs to talk to you about.” The concern on Samuel’s face doesn’t diminish.
“Are they recent scars?”
Samuel shakes his head, the movement small. He sighs, a barely audible rush of air from between his lips. “Some are. Some are several years old. And some showed up on the X-rays. I suspect I’d find more if I had ordered X-rays for the rest of her body.”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying the number of scars is alarming for a woman her age. For a woman of any age. When I asked her about them, she shut down and wouldn’t say anything. I shouldn’t be telling you this, Troy, because you aren’t her family, but I am concerned about what happened to her. I thought you might have some idea what caused the previous injuries. And if whatever caused them is still a threat to her.”
The tightening inside me increases. Shit. I knew something had happened to her to cause the PTSD, but I wasn’t expecting any of what he’s telling me. “I had no idea. She has PTSD, but she hasn’t told me what caused it. Thanks, Samuel. I appreciate the heads-up.”
“Is she seeing anyone? A therapist?”
“She is.”
“That’s good. You can visit her in a few minutes. But only two of you at a time.” He leaves, but my legs refuse to move. I can’t walk. I can’t pace. I can’t talk.
What the hell happened to her?
Years. That’s how old some of the scars are. But he also said some of them are more recent.
Thank God I pushed for her to see Robyn.
“What’s going on?” Kellan’s low and steady voice comes from behind me. I can’t even turn to acknowledge his question.
