by K. I. Lynn
“Babe?” Dana walks out of the bedroom wearing one of Ryan’s shirts.
He glances between her and us. A pained look crosses his features and I can almost see the gears working in his brain. “You have your presentation at eight, right?”
Her brow scrunches and she nods. “Yes. What’s going on?”
Leaving the door open, he rushes past her and into the bedroom, coming out thirty seconds later dressed and hopping on one foot while he puts a shoe on the other.
“Family emergency. You stay and do your presentation, and I’ll give you a call when I know what’s going on.”
“I’ll go with you.”
He shakes his head and reaches out to cup her face in his hands. “It may be nothing while that presentation is seventy percent of your grade.”
Dana’s arms fold over her chest. “Ryan, don’t do that. We’re talking about family. I’m part of your family, right?”
“Baby, you’re one of my three favorite women in the world, the three members of my family.”
“Ouch, man, way to burn.”
Ryan rolls his eyes. “And the dipshit over there.” He pulls her closer and kisses her. “I’ll call you as soon as I know anything. Just make sure you get your presentation done, okay?”
Her mouth forms a thin line and she relents, nodding in acceptance. “Drive safe.”
Fifteen minutes from the time my mom called, we’re loaded in my car and peeling out of the complex.
“She could have come with us, you didn’t have to stop her,” I say as I turn onto the road that leads to the interstate.
“No.” He shakes his head. “If we’re about to commit murder, I don’t want her associated with that.”
Ryan is thinking the same thing I am. It’s the only reason all of us would be going.
And if we’re right, then he means what he says.
After his reaction to the video, the beating my father is about to receive might not be one he can walk away from. Who knows what that means for us, but there’s no going back now.
“What did your mom say?” Kira asks from the backseat. I hand my phone back to her. “What’s the password?”
I never got around to changing it. “My favorite number.”
In the rearview mirror she’s giving me that “really?” expression. If it wasn’t such a high strung moment, I’d tease her, but it’s not the time.
“4-13-97.”
She types them in as I say each number, but looks back up in the mirror. “My birthday?”
I swear tears start to form in her eyes, but it’s hard to tell from the dim reflection in the mirror.
Wasting no time, she pulls up the call history and seconds later, the phone starts ringing.
“Brayden?”
“Hi, Mom.”
“Do you have them?”
“Yeah, we just got onto I71.”
“Abby, what’s going on?” Kira asks, the anxiety of the situation leaking out into her voice by a little wobble.
There’s a sigh through the speaker. “I’m at the hospital with your mom.”
“What happened? Where’s Steven?” Ryan asks and I can feel the anger start vibrating off him.
“I don’t know where he is. Your mom called me at eight and asked me to come out. It took just over two hours to get to the house, and when I got there I found her on the living room floor.”
Kira’s face crumples up, tears streaming down her face. My knuckles are white on the steering wheel and I want to pull over to comfort her, but there’s no time to waste and by the murderous look on Ryan’s face, I don’t want him driving.
“Is she okay?” Kira asks.
“I had to call 9-1-1. It . . . she was struck. Multiple times.”
A sob breaks from Kira’s chest, her free hand covering her mouth.
“She’s awake now and they’re doing some tests, but I can’t go in with her for a lot of them because I’m not family.”
“Was it him?” Ryan hisses between clenched teeth.
“I don’t know.”
“How do you not know?” He explodes, making us all jump.
“Calm down, man,” I say to myself as much as him. Nothing would please me more right now than beating in my father’s face with my fist.
“Don’t fucking tell me to calm down. You know it was him, just as much as I do.”
I glance from the road to Ryan. Never in all the years I’ve known him have I ever seen him as angry as he’s been these past two weeks. Not even in the times he exploded on me was it this strong.
Kira’s hand slips between us on the armrest, reaching for her brother. “Ryan, please.”
That calms him. Seeing the distress of his sister drains the anger out of him to a manageable state for now and he takes her hand in his.
“Steven wasn’t in the house when I got there.”
I freeze and stare out the window watching the stripes on the road swish by. “Was his car there?”
“No.”
Which means he’s in his car. The car that I haven’t taken the GPS tracker out of yet. I hope it stills has some battery left.
“Kitty, pull up the Optimus app.”
“The tracker you put on his car?” Ryan asks.
I nod. “It’s still in there.”
Kira’s reflection shakes back and forth. “It hasn’t moved in four days.”
I slam my hand on the steering wheel. “Damn.”
“You’re not going after him, Brayden,” Mom says.
“Not right now, but that doesn’t mean I can’t sick the cops on him.”
There’s commotion in the background, a bunch of voices, and one familiar one. It’s not her usual tone, but it’s unmistakably Sonia.
Both Ryan and Kira let out a hard sigh, their bodies slumping in the seats with relief.
“How close are you?”
The interstate is three lanes, and we just passed the outlet malls. “About twenty minutes.” It’s actually thirty, but I’m going to get us there in twenty.
“Okay, we’re still in the emergency room area. They might transfer her to the main campus.”
“Thank you, Abby,” Kira says with tears shining in her eyes.
“Oh, sweetie, I’m just happy I can help.”
Kira hangs up the phone as I press down harder on the accelerator until we’re past ninety. At this time of night, the road is empty, nothing but semi trucks and farmland.
The Arrow Springs location is a small hospital, but is the closest emergency room in the county to the house. From past experiences I know they can’t handle severe trauma, which is a good sign for Sonia’s condition. However, Mom did mention they may transfer her.
As soon as we’re out of the car, Ryan and Kira are running through the automatic doors. When I catch up, Ryan’s already at the intake desk.
He’s impatient. Kira, too.
“What was the last name?” the woman behind the desk asks, not even fazed by the panic of the three of us.
“Roth. Sonia Roth.”
I wind my fingers in with Kira’s. She doesn’t look at me, but her grip is crushing. Fear and anxiety ripping her apart. Hearing her mother’s voice helped for the remainder of our drive, but amped up when we got off the exit.
The woman picks up a phone and calls back. “The family of Sonia Roth is here . . . uh-huh . . . okay.” She hangs up the phone and hits a button, a loud click sounds from the double doors. “Go through there and take a right. Someone will be waiting for you.”
Kira pulls on my hand and we break through the doors into a wide hallway. Thirty feet later, Mom appears in front of us.
“This way,” she directs us, wasting no time.
We follow behind, walking past a line of draped-off areas and into a hall with doors lining either side. At the fourth door on the left, she turns, and Kira lets go of me to run to her mother’s side.
“Mom!” Kira cries, throwing her arms around Sonia’s shoulders. Ryan follows, swallowing the two of them up.
It was just a glimpse before she was covered up, but I saw. Sonia’s arm is wrapped up from hand to elbow, and there’s a patch of gauze taped to the side of her forehead. Multiple bruises are forming on her face and neck and beneath her eyes.
I feel like an outsider, like I shouldn’t be here, because it’s my fault this happened, but a huge sigh of relief leaves me when I see her awake and alert.
“Don’t blame yourself, Brayden,” Mom says beside me, her arms circling my waist.
Somehow, she knew exactly how I’m feeling. Her words don’t hold any comfort, though. My stomach is still tangled in knots.
“Are you okay?” Kira asks Sonia as she smooths out the hair around her face, inspecting her damage.
It’s then they notice her arm.
“What happened?” Ryan asks.
I step closer to hear until I’m at the foot of the bed.
“I . . . I’m not really sure.”
Mom steps forward. “She suffered a pretty severe blow to the head that caused a concussion. Memory of the attack is often foggy, but there’s a chance it will come back.”
Sonia looks up at Kira and Ryan, who are both sitting on either side of her on the bed. “I don’t remember what happened, but I do know I was having a fight with Steven.”
“What about?”
She shakes her head, her brow scrunched as she attempts to recall the memory. “I received a file this week, evidence of so many wrongs. Illegitimate children, affairs, and lies. And . . .” she looks at Kira and reaches out to cup her face. “I couldn’t believe the twisted things I saw. I called Abby after I went over it all. Steven wasn’t home, late again per usual, and I knew this time, the fight was going to be bad.”
“Why did you call Abby?” Ryan asks. “If you knew it was going to be bad, why didn’t you call me or Kira? We’re your children, not your husband’s ex-wife.”
I want to jump to my mom’s defense, but I understand what he means. Why someone you’re not even friends with over your own family?
“Because I needed a witness, someone who’s been in my position and could give me the strength I needed to confront him and not back down. Ryan, if you were there you would have gone to jail, and I wasn’t going to let that happen.”
Ryan gets up and paces. “It’s too fucking late for that, Mom. He fucking raised a hand to you, and I can’t stand for it.” He stops in front of me, his hazel eyes alight with destructive energy, staring at me as he holds out his hand. “Give me your keys.”
I shake my head as I stuff my hand in my pocket and wrap my fingers around them. “No, man. You’re too worked up.” Odd that I’m the calm one right now, but I think that’s the guilt weighing me down. “Stay here, your mom needs you and you haven’t even talked to the doctor yet.” We’re face to face, his jaw locked down, nostrils flaring. I shake my head. “Don’t make me shut you down.”
“Like you’d be able to fucking stop me right now.”
A hand presses against my chest, pushing me away from Ryan. I let Kira toss me back, taking my place as her small fists pound against her brother’s chest.
“Stop it! Just stop it, please!”
She’s shaking, sobbing against him, and I watch his face morph into a tortured mess.
“I need some air,” he says as he cups her chin and kisses the top of her forehead before storming out of the room and down the hall.
Kira’s still crying, her fists clenched over her eyes as she experiences what I went through for years. Something I never wanted her to even witness let alone experience in her family.
“Ssh, baby, it’s okay.” I fold my arms around her and pull her close. I don’t even care that it’s in front of Sonia, because I suspect she’s known for a while. Glancing up at her and the forlorn expression on her face tells me I’m right.
Ryan comes back half an hour later, calmer and in control. His gaze bounces over me and Kira, who’s in my lap as we sit on one side of Sonia’s bed, then to his mother. He takes a seat on the other side of her and wraps his hand around hers.
“How are you feeling? What hurts?”
Seems he’s returned to some semblance of rationality.
Before Sonia can answer, the doctor comes in. “Ah, I see your family has arrived. Good, good.” His gaze bounces around. “Unfortunately, I need only family right now.”
I nod and move to stand, putting Kira on the ground when Sonia’s hand clamps down on my arm.
“This is my stepson.”
The doctor looks between me and Kira and nods in acceptance, and we return to our position.
“I’ll be right back,” Mom says. I hate that she’s being excluded from this.
“Abby, wait,” the doctor calls out, stopping her. “You’re her nurse, aren’t you?”
She smiles up at him and places her hand on his arm. “Thank you, Robert.”
“So, I have some good news and some bad results. First, your arm isn’t broken, but there is a possibility of a torn tendon that will need an MRI to determine and a possible surgery to fix.”
“Was that good news or bad?” Kira asks.
“A bit of both. The bad is whoever attacked you gave you a nasty concussion and we’re going to transfer you down to Bethesda North for observation and that MRI. Depending on how it goes and what your results come back with will determine the next course and when you might be able to go home.”
The word home drops a heavy weight on the room.
That house is not a place she should spend another night.
It isn’t a home. It’s a prison created by my father.
A control measure.
It’s time Sonia broke out.
The sun is cresting over the horizon by the time Mom and I get to the main campus of the hospital where Sonia is being transferred. We followed behind the ambulance that houses Sonia, Kira, and Ryan the entire way, but we’re forced to break off, heading to visitor parking while the ambulance moves to the entrance.
“I need you to promise me something,” Mom says as we walk into the hospital, linking her arm around mine.
I don’t want to promise her anything, because I know what she’s going to ask of me and I don’t know if I can keep any agreement.
“You know I can’t do that.”
“Okay, then at least promise me you’ll try hard not to kill your father and to keep Ryan from doing it as well.”
“I’ll try, and I’ll try to keep Ryan out of trouble, but I’ve never seen him like this. He’s always been super protective of his family and seeing everything my father has done . . .”
“Just try. And I also want you to stop blaming yourself. I expected to see you fuming with anger, but instead I can almost see the weight of your guilt resting on your shoulders. Sonia will be fine.”
“She will be, but what if he didn’t stop? What if he left her there hoping he hit her hard enough to kill her?”
“Your father is a son of a bitch, but the last thing he wants to do is to go to jail. He probably left right after to form an alibi.”
“Did he know you were coming?”
She shakes her head. “I doubt it.” Her mouth opens wide, a loud yawn escaping.
“You should get some sleep.”
“I’m fine, and the same could be said about you three.”
We get to the doors right after they’ve wheeled Sonia in.
Dad’s insurance must be good, because she gets her own room, complete with a reclining chair for guests which I plan to take advantage of soon with Kira. There are a few other chairs, and once she’s settled in, we wait for her new doctor.
Before we left the Arrow Springs location, the police came by to get a statement from Sonia and Mom after detailing the crime scene.
Kira, Ryan, and I left the room, or rather, I forced Ryan out of the room before he exploded again, and we went to find some coffee.
The adrenaline wore off long ago, and the need to sleep is creeping in. While there is a place we can crash for a few, it also isn’t a place
any of us want to go. In fact, I plan to ask Kira to pack up the rest of her stuff and we can store it in my apartment, or at my mom’s, just so she never has to go back.
Sonia is awake, though just as tired looking as the rest of us. The new nurses take her vitals and are gone almost as quickly as they came.
“We need to get you moved out of that house,” Ryan says.
It’s something I’m sure we were all thinking, but the room had been so silent, it almost felt like he yelled it.
Sonia nods. “Abby and I were talking about that before you arrived and, after speaking with the police, she’s offered me a place to stay for a little while.”
We all turn to stare at her in surprise
Kira sits on the bed next to her. “In Indianapolis?”
“It’s far, but safe, and she can look after me, take me to doctors’ appointments for the next week or so until the doctor clears me to drive.”
Sonia wasn’t going to press charges, because she didn’t remember anything and was afraid. However, Ryan insisted it and my mom was able to explain to her in a calmer way that it would be best for her. The police haven’t been able to locate him yet.
Who knows whose pussy he spent the night in?
I look over to Ryan and he’s got that look on his face, the contemplative one. Weighing the options and using that ever-reasoning brain of his, he sighs and nods in agreement.
“We’ll go get your stuff packed up,” Kira says.
I nod as I sit down. “We can rent a truck and a storage place and get it all out, just tell us what you want where.”
I’m trying to let the guilt go, but that leaves room for the anger to seep back in, and I can feel it taking control again. I keep clenching my teeth, my jaw locked down, my free hand wrapped around the armrest, squeezing it.
There’s a storage center off 741 and 42 that’s twenty-four hours and climate controlled. I pull out my phone, looking up the nearest U-Haul location. A small truck should do us.
Sonia’s brow scrunches. “Is all that necessary? I was thinking just a suitcase for a week or two.”
Ryan shakes his head. “Brayden’s right. We need to get all your stuff out of there so you aren’t near him alone ever again.”