45
Marco
Neli doesn’t ask. She tells.
“You’re going,” she says this morning while bringing me my breakfast.
I’m working through my shoulder rehabilitation exercises, and grimace in pain.
“Going where?” I keep my voice uninterested.
“Facial trauma peer group. Church basement in Brooklyn. Seven pm tonight.”
I laugh bitterly. “Absolutely fucking not.”
She doesn’t flinch. Just puts my breakfast tray down on the table and steps back. “Mr. Fiore. You’ve been hiding in this room for weeks. Your daughter cries every time she sees you. The woman who saved your life won’t even knock on your door anymore. You need help.”
“Ihavehelp. I have you.”
“I’m a nurse. Not a therapist.” She crosses her arms. “This group is people who’ve been through what you’re going through. Facial scarring. Trauma. Identity shifts. They understand.”
“I don’t need understanding. I need time.”
“Time for what exactly? To convince yourself you’re unlovable? To keep punishing yourself? You’ve had time! More than enough!” Her voice softens but doesn’t yield. “You’re not the first person to lose their face and survive. But you will be the first to waste the second chance.”
The words hit harder than I want to admit.
She gives me an address and a time, and refuses to leave until I enter both into my phone.
After she’s gone, the address mocks me from the phone screen. Some church in Sunset Park. Public transit accessible. Which means normal people. Regular humans who won’t have security teams and decoy routes and enough money to hide forever.
Fuck.
Do I really want to do this?
I could just pretend Neli never gave me the address.
Could go on hiding...
I close my eyes. Sigh.
I can do it.
Needto do it.
I text Jag first.Need advance sweep. Church basement. Sunset Park. Tonight at seven. No cameras. No recordings. Full perimeter.
His response comes back in under thirty seconds.On it.
Then I open the text thread with Jess. We’ve become experts at this. Digital communication. Safe. No chance she’ll see my face.
My fingers hover over the virtual keyboard. What the hell do I even say?
Finally I type:Going to some healing circle thing tonight. Neli’s idea. Wish me luck.
The three dots appear almost immediately.That’s really brave Marco. You’ve got this.
I’m brave?
