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I shut the bathroom door behind me. “How do you think she is?”
Stefan’s brows rose at the irritation I couldn’t hide. “More hurt than she’s letting on and doesn’t trust us to admit it.”
I wasn’t surprised he’d picked up on that. He knew his daughter better than anyone. I fisted the towel in my hands. “That’s my fault.”
Stefan stuffed his hands into his pockets. “It is.”
His honesty made my guilt feel ten times heavier. It was what I deserved.
“But the fault doesn’t just belong to you, or even Louie for that matter,” Stefan said, looking away.
It wasn’t everyday a boss, Stefan least of all, admitted fault and it was difficult not to show my surprise.
“I don’t know what mistakes were made, nor is it any of my business,” Dr. Ben said. He was visibly nervous, his hand gripping the strap of his medical bag hanging off his shoulder to the point his knuckles were white. “But she has been through a lot over the past few days. It could be that she’s locked into survival mode, and it can take a while for someone to feel safe enough to come out of that. I think you should give her time before you take what she’s doing personally.”
What he said only made sense when it came to Stefan. I knew this because it hadn’t been Louie or me she had called multiple times while she had been gone these past four months. She deserved more than just time from me.
* * *
After changing into dry clothes, I returned just as Maura was exiting the bathroom wearing a robe. Dr. Ben had her sit on the edge of the bed. He knelt down in front of her. “Will you tell me what happened? I need to know how you were injured.”
Stefan and I gave them room and went to stand near the foot of the bed.
Maura stared at the doctor she often referred to as Fabio Jr. with a closed-off expression and tired eyes. “Point to which injury and I’ll tell you.”
He pointed to her face, where her cheekbone was puffy and cut, the area under her left eye was black, and the corner of her bottom lip was split.
“I was punched, backhanded, and slapped,” she answered in a factual manner.
He lifted her chin to look at the finger-shaped bruises around her neck. “Here?”
“Choked.”
Stefan had gone very still next to me. Seeing her injuries and hearing how she’d gotten them was far from fucking easy.
Dr. Ben grabbed her hands and inspected the tearing and bruises around her wrists. “Here?”
“I was handcuffed.”
Dr. Ben’s hand moved to her fingers on her right hand. There was a line of gashes across them. “Here?”
“I turned my handcuffs into my own version of brass knuckles,” she said.
Dr. Ben looked over at Stefan and me. “I need her to open her robe.”
Stefan ignored Dr. Ben’s hint to leave and turned around, giving them his back.
I met Maura’s eyes. “Do you want me to leave?”
She unfastened her robe. “You’ve already seen it, and this saves me from having to explain what happened later.”
“This isn’t telling us what happened, Maura,” Stefan said, glaring at the floor.
Dr. Ben helped her stand and opened the robe wide enough so he could see the splash of bruises along her ribs and stomach. He felt around and pushed on her ribs. “Here?”
Maura jerked away from him a little while grimacing. “Punched,” she forced out.
“I don’t think they’re broken,” Dr. Ben said and moved his hand to her stomach. “Here?”
