Eventually, Zee climbed in next to her in the hospital bed and she settled in his arms, until he spoke.
“I love you.I’m sorry.”And he kept saying that and she knew he meant it but it didn’t ease her pain.
Ella knew how worried he was and hated that she’d done something to cause him pain, even if it wasn’t entirely her own fault.
She tried to straighten up, and he slid an arm under her.
“Ella, I can’t believe Nico…”
“I don’t want to hear his name,” Ella said through clenched teeth.
A quick bolt of anger rolled through her and she pushed it down.
She didn’t get angry.
Not usually.
But now it was like that foreign emotion seeped into her every pore and wanted to get out but she wouldn’t hurt Zee further.
“Okay dear heart.”Zee brushed a soft kiss at her temple.The gesture made her sigh involuntarily, though he was getting on her nerves
That was an irrational thought and she sat up, just to move and reached for her cup of water.
Zee already had it in his hand and brought it to her lips.
But she must have slept, because the light filtering in from the windows had grown brighter.
“I want to get out of here.”
“I know but it might be better to keep you an extra night.We don’t have the results of those drug tests yet.”Zee spun on his heel, pacing the other way.
Ella bit her lip, felt how dry it was and wanted to scoff at herself.
When she was growing up on the farm and working outside with her father, her dry lips never bothered her then.But that was her old, old self.
This self, right here in a hospital bed, was used to being pampered and spoiled.
Even in the daylight, her anxiety wouldn’t ease as her mind replayed the moment Nico yanked from the garden.
The smell of his van floorboards and then when he got her in that house, threw her in that room.
A cry ripped from her throat, but she choked back the sob and she tried to shake it off.
“Ella?”Zee rushed over to her.“Dear heart, I’m here.”
“I should have gotten away.”She choked out the words.“I shouldn’t have let him take me.”
But when he tossed her in that room, she couldn’t move even though she tried to.
Eventually she forced herself up, through the fog that coated her thoughts but she didn’t know how long she had been held there.
Exploring the room, with her hand on the wall, she noticed empty cans of pain and building materials.
Across the room, against a board of plywood, she spotted a large rock.
Pushing herself to move, she grabbed the rock and waited.
While she waited, she forced herself to stretch to move, to push through, even though sleep wanted to claim her, to pull her under.
