“You don’t hate me?” she asks, her voice as soft as a whisper. “After all that, you still think I’m a good person?”
"What are you talking about?" I ask, shocked at the words coming out of her mouth. “Did we not just hear the same story?"
"But …" she starts. I hold up my hand, and she shakes her head. “But I enabled them."
"Enabled them," I repeat the word. “Is that what you did?" She looks at me. “I see someone who did what they did in order to survive. You, Willow Davis," I say her full name, her eyes on mine. “You are the epitome of a survivor."
Chapter 14
Willow
"Enabled them," he repeats the words I just said. “Is that what you did?" I look at him as my heartbeats fill my ears. “I see someone who did what they did in order to survive. You, Willow Davis,” he says my full name, and my stomach dips. "You are the epitome of a survivor."
The lump in my throat forms, and I want to say something, but I fear that if I open my mouth, nothing but a sob will rip through me. "My head hurts," I whisper, and he nods his head, walking out of the room to give me a chance to get myself together. My lower lip trembles, and then the sob I’ve been holding back escapes me. I put my hand over my mouth to cover it, but it’s not fast enough because Quinn turns and runs right back in.
“Are you hurt?" he says, his voice filled with worry. “Shirley!” he yells for her as I shake my head back and forth.
"I’m …" I start to say. He comes to the side of my bed, and he sits in the chair beside me. His face is filled with fear. “I’m …"
“Just breathe,” he says softly, taking my hand in his. His thumb rubs over the back of my hand. “Just breathe.” I close my eyes, trying to count to ten and get my heart to calm down. “You’re okay.” It’s not my counting that gets my heart to go down. No, it’s his voice. It’s his voice, and his touch, and it scares the shit out of me.
I lick my lips and open my eyes, looking at him as he sits there in the chair with his shoulders slumped forward and his head hanging down. “How are you still here?" I ask him, and he looks up at me with his own tears in his eyes. “After hearing all of that, how are you still sitting here. Why?"
“How can you ask that?” He looks at me, his hand coming up to wipe the tear that has just escaped from my eyes. My heart speeds up for a whole different reason. “How do you not know that I’m not leaving your side?” His words hit me in the stomach as I think about the fact no one has ever said that to me in my life. I’ve been told many things. I’ve been made empty promises. But I’ve never ever had someone say something like that and feel it in my bones that he meant every single word he just said.
"What’s going on?" Shirley walks into the room.
"Her head hurts,” Quinn says for me.
"It’s a low throb,” I say, and she looks at me with her own tears in her eyes.
"You’ve had a long day,” she says. “I’ll get you something for the pain."
"No," I say, my voice coming out stronger than I want it to. “It’s tolerable."
She tilts her head to the side. “Fine, but if it gets worse, you tell me."
"I will," I agree and close my eyes, not looking back over at Quinn.
I just told them a fraction of what I went through, baring my soul to each of them. I stared at each one of them, waiting to see how their eyes would shift, and they would look at me. But as each word poured out of me, and I showed them the hell that was my life, nothing in their eyes changed.
I hear voices, but the darkness sucks me in.
"She’s staying with me." Quinn’s voice plays in my head over and over again. "When she is discharged, she’ll be staying with me." I turn around to find him, but all I see is the darkness.
"He didn’t mean it." My mother’s voice breaks into my head. "He wouldn’t bring you home, not after he finds out what you did."
I run away from her voice, but then his voice comes in. “No one is ever going to want you."
I run in the dark forest until I see the light shining in. "You are everything." I hear Quinn, but the sound of Rosalie and Benjamin’s wicked laughter overtakes his voice.
My eyes fly open, looking around the room, I see him standing at the window. His arm rests on his head as he looks out at the sunset. I wonder if he regrets what he said or if he’s replaying everything I said. I watch him for a second longer until there is a knock on the door, and my head turns toward it at the same time as Quinn.