But staring into Dr. Grant’s eyes, I was horrifyingly lucid.
“Why would you want that, sweetheart?” Melissa asked, her voice dropping to a cautious whisper. She pulled a blue vinyl chair closer to the rails of my bed.
My bottom lip quivered against my will. “Because if they know I’m alive,” I stammered, the words tasting like ash in my mouth, “they’ll come take me home.”
The atmosphere in the room crystallized. A male nurse, Daniel Ruiz, who had been checking my vitals, turned his head slowly. The casual professionalism in his posture evaporated. “Did someone hurt you, Ava?” he asked, his tone thick with dread.
I hesitated. To speak was to break the cardinal rule of the Carter household. To speak meant the laundry room. It meant the cold showers. It meant the agonizing, gnawing emptiness of the ‘silent days’. I swallowed the lump of terror lodged in my throat. I gave a single, microscopic nod.
Dr. Grant and Nurse Ruiz exchanged a silent, loaded glance.
“What happened?” Melissa pressed gently.
The dam shattered. The words bled out of me in jagged fragments. “They told me I should be grateful. They said I was a charity case and nobody else wanted me. If I cry, they take away my dinner. If I complain, they promised they would send me to a place much worse than them.”
I reached down with trembling fingers and pushed back the oversized sleeve of my hospital gown, exposing a tapestry of fading yellow and purple contusions wrapped around my forearm. “They lock me inside the laundry room when the guests arrive.”
Melissa’s face drained of color.
“Last night, I felt really sick,” I continued, my lungs working overtime, hyperventilating as the memories rushed back. “Mrs. Carter said I was just putting on a show. Mr. Carter warned me that if I made them waste money on a doctor again, I would regret it forever.” I leaned forward, pleading with everything I had left. “Please don’t call them. If they believe I passed away, they’ll stop hunting for me.”
Daniel didn’t say a word; he simply spun on his heel and strode out of the room to intercept the charge nurse. Melissa stayed, leaning in so close I could smell the peppermint on her breath.
“Ava, listen to me,” she said, her voice anchoring me to the room. “I am not going to lie and declare you dead. But I swear to you right now—we are going to protect you.”
I stared at her, searching the microscopic lines around her eyes for the deception I had come to expect from every adult in my life. Before I could decide if she was lying, a sharp crackle of a walkie-talkie echoed from the hallway outside.
Daniel leaned back through the doorway, his face pale and grim. “Security just radioed up,” he whispered urgently to Dr. Grant. “The Carters are down in the lobby. And they are demanding to see her right now.”
