Ruthless Monarch

There is a large burn mark across her face, leaving her disfigured.

I look further and see that her arms are badly burned as well. The fire was real.

Now everything that happened after that is still a mystery.

“Mom.” Julia runs to her. Beside me, Viviana is quietly sobbing. I brace my arms around her, letting her cry into my chest.

“She’s alive. I know he told me . . . but he wouldn’t let me see her.”

Ana, the twin’s mom, looks heavily sedated.

She doesn’t look at her children, but she does start to speak.

Her words make no sense.

Just repeats them over and over again.

I’m not sure if it’s from her medication or if it’s from the accident that happened so long ago, but it’s obvious that the woman they know and love is long since gone. If she will ever return is the question.

“What are you doing here?” the nurse barks at us, but then when she sees Julia on the floor beside her mother crying, she understands.

“She’s my mother,” Jonathan says, stepping up from behind to walk up to his sister. He places his hand on her.

“She can’t have visitors.”

“Please, she’s my mother.” Julia weeps. “Don’t make me go.”

“He won’t let her have visitors. You can’t be here. If he finds out . . .” Her face is pale, and she doesn’t need to tell us who she is talking about.

Marino.

“He won’t know we are here. Please tell us anything you can about her case.”

As if on cue, Ana starts to babble again.

“Does she speak?”

“I don’t really know. I’m new here, but for as long as I’ve been here . . . no.”

“Is it from the fire?” Viviana asks, clearly devastated by what her actions might have caused.

“I don’t know,” the nurse admits.

“So, it could be from the drugs?”

“Maybe. I’m new, I don’t want to get into trouble. I only hand out the medicine the doctor provides.”

I nod my head, knowing she is scared. “We are going to fix this,” I tell everyone in the room, and I mean it. No matter what happens, I will make sure Ana is no longer in this hellhole. “Is there anything more you can tell us? Anything that could help?” She shakes her head. Ana starts babbling again. “What is she saying?”

“Doll.”

“I’m not entirely sure, but I think doll.”

“You have to go. They are starting rounds again. I only came in because I heard you. If I can hear you . . .”

I turn back to Julia, who is now holding her mother’s hand. “Julia, I promise I will do everything in my power to get her out, but first, we have to get out of here.”

“Okay,” she whispers before leaning in and kissing her mother. Jonathan is next, followed by Viviana, who tells her she’s sorry.

Hours later, we are all back at the compound.

It’s funny how only earlier today, I was sure I would be killing both of them, and now, as I sit in my chair, scotch in hand, I watch them all cry together over what we just found.

But the question still stands, why did Marino have her?

“What was to gain from keeping her?”

“That’s my question too. Why would he go through all this trouble to keep her hidden?”

We all go silent as the question lingers in the air.

Why?

“An insurance policy. She knows something, and by keeping her in the state she is in, she can’t talk.”

A myriad of emotions play over everyone’s faces.

Anger. Sadness, and then relief.

Because if this is the case, then maybe Ana will come back to us.

“You think she is in there, still?”

“There is no way to know,” I tell the group. “Years of medication . . . but maybe. She did speak, so maybe.”

“What was she saying?” Julia asks.

“The nurse said she always babble the same thing . . . doll. Maybe dollhouse.”

“Oh, my God.”

“What?” everyone asks Viviana at the same time.

“That’s from when I was a child.”

“What do you think it means? Do you think that was her way of telling us she knew we were there?”

Viviana shakes her head. “No. The nurse said the staff was trying to figure out what it meant for years. That it’s the only thing she says.”

“We need to find it. Maybe it means something.”

“Where is it Viviana?”

“With my stuff.”

“And where would that be?”

“In the governor’s mansion.”

44

Viviana

* * *

Step one, take down my father. Step two, deal with Salvatore. In that order.

I’m not sure how we are going to find the dollhouse, but we have to try. Even if it means dying.

I turn to Jonathan.

“You have to take me back.”

He inclines his head and gives me a look like he thinks I’m batshit crazy.

“And how exactly do you suppose I do that?”

“Tell my father I escaped. Say I got shot. Say anything, but sell it. I need in that house.”