“Stop!”
.
.
.
“Shut up, whore.”
I shut up. It’s easier if I’m quiet.
.
.
.
“Now, I’m going to tell you a story. About me and my brothers: my half brother, Enzo; my twin brother, Pietro; and my younger brother, Felix.”
28
Enzo
“Kai has been like this for hours. I can’t wake her up,” I say to the doctor.
Langston and Liesel are standing behind me looking horrified as we all stare down at Kai, lying in the bed, clearly in torment. At first, I thought she was just having a nightmare, but then I couldn’t wake her up.
I tried shaking, talking, yelling, tapping, sitting her up, pouring water over her, nothing worked.
The doctor ignores me and continues to check her over. He listens to her heart for a few more minutes, and then he looks at the three of us waiting for answers.
“Everyone deals with extreme situations differently. And this is how she is handling the trauma. When she was experiencing it, her brain must not have processed everything that was happening to her the first time. Something triggered the trauma, and she’s processing it all now.”
I triggered her, by fucking her.
I run my hand through my hair. “What can we do?”
He looks from me to her. “I can sedate her, which would put her into a deeper sleep and get rid of the nightmares, but—”
“Do it,” I say. I need her pain to stop.
“But this could keep happening over and over until her brain has processed what has happened to her. It may be better to just let her body run its course,” the doctor continues.
“Sedate her,” I say.
“Enzo, take a second and think about what Kai would want. She’s never shied away from dealing with her pain. Maybe you should let her body do its thing. And when this is over, then she can work on healing in a healthy way,” Liesel says.
“Fuck!” I yell, hoping somehow that it will wake Kai up, because I don’t want to make the decision.
“Give her twenty-four-hours to rest in her own way. Process what happened as it comes. Then we can make a decision to either sedate her or wake her up. I’ve given her some pain medication, so either way, she won’t be in physical pain,” the doctor says, getting up.
Langston and Liesel thank him, but I just go and sit next to Kai.
Milo is gone. His empire is in shambles. And there is no threat of a successor to take his place. Kai is safe.
But I can’t save her from her nightmares. And I can’t protect her from her past.
“Tell me what to do, stingray. Tell me what to do.”