“That’s her daughter… I mean, not every mother is as heartless as ours. I need help,” I finally screeched out. I was pretty certain I was going to throw up again, and I focused on the ceiling fan, watching it whir around, willing my stomach to keep it together.
“I know. But you know Ezza, and let’s not forget the Minister. They play by the rule book, especially Mom. She so desperately wants to be the Minister.”
“Can you talk to the medic? Ask him what to do?”
“He won’t. I tried. He says this needs to run its course…as if they knew this was a risk.”
“What the heck? Car—they knew? They sent me, thinking this might happen?”
Caro didn’t have a chance to answer because I heard my mother in the background.Is that your sister?I envisioned her glaring at Caro.
“Mom, she’s really not doing well.” Caro defended me.
Give me the phone.
“Hello, Tulya. The medic says you’ll be fine…eventually.”
“What? When is eventually? Mother, I am covered in a rash—”
“Listen, it’s imperative that Donovan returns and takes the human back. Every minute she is here on Rubia is sixty seconds closer to our demise.”
I felt my head trying to shake. My mother was going to leave me to fend for myself. All she cared about was the plan she and Ceci had set.
“He’s not in the room right now, but I will tell him.” It was all I could say. The only thing I wanted to do was hang up with my mother.
“Be sure. The jet is ready, and we need to make haste.”
“Okay.” My response was weak and feeble, but between my body at war and acknowledging my own mother didn’t care, neither did I.
“Does that feel okay?” Donovan called through the half-closed door. I’d had sex in several different positions with the man, fallen asleep naked in his arms, and here we were—shouting between the bedroom and bathroom because I was naked in the tub.
I was currently in a lukewarm bath with baking soda sprinkled in, per a text from Caro. She’d poked around the medic’s office and stole a book off the shelves outlining what to do for shock-induced hives. We weren’t sure if it would work, but at this point, what could I lose?
Donovan had spent about five minutes grumbling over Caro finding the information and no one warning me, while murmuringwhat the fuck?I wanted to know all the answers to these questions, especiallywhat the fuck. My skin felt like it was molting off.
I’d started to sit up and Donovan took the hint and called down to the kitchen asking for baking soda ASAP and told me he’d run the bath. After a few minutes of his flying around, I’d managed to stand and start walking toward the bathroom.
It was only when I crossed the threshold to my room that I felt weak and started to buckle in my knees.
“Shit,” I whispered before leaning into the wall. Of course Donovan, in his heightened state of anxiety, sensed my suffering and hurried out of the bathroom, lifting me. “This is absurd,” I argued. “You’re not carrying me. I can maybe crawl?”
“Shut up” was all he said and then the doorbell rang.
He set me on the bed and ran for the baking soda, threatening me not to dare move.
I was trying to take my dress off when he reappeared and said, “Let me do that.” I glared at him, and he’d told me, “Now’s not the time to be shy.”
He gently lifted the dress over my head and hauled me into his arms again, taking me to the en suite bathroom, placing me gently on the vanity. I unhooked my bra and kicked off my panties. “I need to go to the bathroom, and I donotwant you to lift me on the toilet. I have to draw the line somewhere.”
Thankfully, he listened to me, holding out his hand, and I took it without looking behind me in the mirror. I could only imagine my skin red with fury, my hair not combed, makeup smeared all over my face.
“I’ll be back,” he noted when I sat down, and scurried out.
I did my business, and in a moment of defeat called for him. There was no way I trusted myself to get up and then lower my body into the sunken tub.
Which was how we came to this moment, me soaking in a gross baking soda bath, Donovan on the other side of the door.
“It’s cutting down on some of the itching,” I told him. “But there are more by the minute.” With nothing better to do, I watched the tiny red welts multiply on my skin.
