Finding Beauty in the Darkness
“Can you tell me what hurts?” she queries.
I put the now empty mug back on the nightstand. “My face. I think my ribs are broken, my stomach is aching, and I’m bleeding heavily from my vagina.”
She gives me another soft smile and I appreciate the fact that she doesn’t look at me with pity.
“Giovanni, come here, please,” she requests.
He walks back into the room. “Everything okay?”
“I’m going to need some equipment. Can you have one of your men bring me the equipment from my trunk, please?”
After Giovanni leaves, Dr. Fox helps me remove Giovanni’s jacket and hands me the clothes that are next to the bed. “Go ahead and slip this shirt on for now. I want to check you out before you put on your shorts, though.”
“Okay, thank you.”
She gently helps me slip the shirt on over my head.
Giovanni knocks once before walking in, and following him inside the room are the three men who work for him, carrying several pieces of medical equipment. “Aria, in case you don’t remember. This is Rome…” He points to a good-looking, dark-haired man who is slightly less built than Giovanni and a few years younger but just as handsome. “…and Johnny.”
The man I recognize as Giovanni’s driver tilts his head up. He’s carrying a piece of what looks like heavy equipment. His biceps are bulging out with veins running downward. His hair is a light brown and longer than the other men. It’s slicked back but not greasy. His eyes are a beautiful shade of icy blue and he’s sporting a neatly trimmed beard. I must be appraising Johnny too long because Giovanni makes a noise in the back of his throat, which causes the guy he hasn’t formally introduced me to yet, to laugh.
“This is Caesar,” Giovanni finishes, his words coming out harsher than before.
“If you need anything, please let me know,” Caesar says as he sets down the medical bag he’s holding and steps over to me, taking my hand in his and giving the top of my knuckles a soft kiss. I flinch from his touch, but I don’t pull back.
While Giovanni, Johnny, and Rome all look like men straight out of the Godfather, Caesar gives off a more playful approach. His hair is jet black and curly, and his face is clean shaven making him appear younger than the others. They all have faint accents, which if I had to guess are Italian, but they all speak English perfectly.
Caesar’s kiss lingers for a few seconds before Giovanni growls out, “Okay, set the equipment down and get back to work.”
The three men all chuckle but do as he says. It’s obvious that while they work for Giovanni, they are all friends on some level.
“While you are here, if you need anything. you come to me first. But if I’m not available, you can go to any of those three men. You can trust them, got it?” While I’m here? Does that mean he’s going to let me go?
I give Giovanni a small smile and thank the guys. Even though I’m almost ninety-nine percent sure he’s going to force me to stay here, I appreciate him trying to make me feel comfortable and safe, especially after having gone so long without feeling either one. Wow! You know your life has reached new levels of craziness when you’re thankful your new kidnapper is nicer than your previous kidnapper.
The three men leave, shutting the door behind them, and Giovanni goes back to the sitting room.
“I’m going to do an ultrasound first to see if we can find out why you’re bleeding.” Dr. Fox lifts my shirt and squirts blue gel on the lower part of my stomach. I flinch from the pain I feel when she presses down. “I’m sorry, sweetie, because of the bleeding, I don’t want to go in vaginally unless I have to.”
She switches on a monitor, and a black and white screen comes into view. “This is your uterus.” She points to the screen. She moves the transducer across my stomach continuing to spread the gel, not saying anything more. The silence is killing me, but I’m trying to let her do her job without asking a million questions.
“What’s wrong?” I finally ask.
She turns her face to me, and for the first time since I met her a short time ago, she gives me a look of pity—or maybe sympathy. “You’re pregnant. Well, you were. There’s no heartbeat. The bleeding you are experiencing is your body naturally miscarrying. I’m so sorry.”
The thought of my body carrying a baby from one of the men who have raped me hits me hard. I lurch forward and, grabbing the first thing I can find—the mug I drank my water from—I vomit.
Giovanni rushes to me, holding the trashcan out for me just in time as I hurl again and again until there’s nothing left inside my stomach. My abdomen screams in pain, but it’s the least of my concerns right now.