“Honey? Honey! Marcus! She’s awake.” My mother’s shrill, uneven voice pierced my consciousness before I saw her. Giving myself a few more seconds, I slowly opened my eyes again, to be greeted by a flustered version of the woman who had, in all my life, stayed calm, even when our debts had meant we had only one real meal a day, and sometimes not even that. I was just short of my tenth birthday then – I remember, because my mom had had to borrow some sugar from Mrs. Hensley, our neighbor back then, just to bake me some birthday cupcakes.
“What happened?” It was a hospital room, I surmised. A private one, it seemed.
My mom glanced worriedly at Marcus, as if unsure what to say. His expression was one I hadn't seen on him before - a mixture of barely suppressed fury and an almost cold reluctance.
“You sustained a concussion. After...after Hans hit you on the head."
At the mention of his name, I dared myself to ask. "What happened to him? And Monica?"
This time, it was my mother who filled me in. "Hans is...undergoing counseling. We've placed him under strict orders not to go anywhere near drugs, or near you."
Even with my addled brain, her answer seemed thoroughly unsatisfactory. Perhaps that explained the palpable silence in the room, and Marcus' strange behavior.
"And Monica?" I added quietly. I couldn't imagine she would be willing to let the incident go unreported. He almost raped her, and had a knife against her throat, for God's sake.
"She's decided to withdraw her claims of what happened. She understands Hans was under influence." Marcus' voice was clipped.
This was so unlike the Marcus I knew - or I thought I knew.
"But it's not the first time!" The protest came from some unrecognized deep-rooted fury inside me. "He's done this before. He got one of the guys at school to corner me in a lab!" My mom's hand flew to her mouth.
"Do you have evidence?" Marcus asked, coldly.
I shook my head, even as I realized how stupid I had been for not reporting it to anyone. "Hank never got to me. Cole managed to save me before he could lay his hands on me."
An eyebrow raised, and Marcus turned on his heel and disappeared out of the room. I looked in shock at the closed door, unable to comprehend how this Marcus was the same as the Marcus I knew the past year.
My mom’s sigh made me turn towards her. “It’s...been hard on him. To see the outcome he had feared.”
I looked questioningly at her, but she shook her head. “That’s not a topic for right now. Right now, I need you to rest and get better. The school knows you will be away for a few days. Hans has been sent off to a private rehab center to...fix his issues.”
My eyes must have grown as round as ping pong balls. “He’s been institutionalized?”
She shook her head again. “It’s only temporary, and we can’t force him to stay. Ella, I want you to understand this. If it had been any other circumstances, any other person’s child who had done this to you, I wouldn’t hesitate to report him to the police. But now...” Her voice trailed off, and I sensed she was asking me for my forgiveness. I wasn’t sure what to say to her, because a sense of betrayal had crept into the edges of my awareness, and I didn’t want her to know this.
Monica had had to withdraw her police report, and I wondered what she got out of it. Had Marcus paid her off? Given this new side of him I was seeing, it wouldn’t surprise me. Or had she been more forgiving of Hans, perhaps in light of what she knew about him and the family? I hated that I didn’t know the circumstances that my mom spoke of, and yet I was supposed to overlook the things that Hans had done to me.
Glancing around the hospital room, I heaved a sigh. “Do you need anything?” my mom asked as she stroked my hair gently. It had grown longer, but was still far shorter than I had ever worn it. Which reminded me.
“Where’s Cole?”
Her lips turned downwards. “He went to his mother’s. He flew there earlier today.”
It was as if the rug had been pulled out from under me. Everything was different now – our lives so changed from what it appeared to be initially. I could feel the despair radiating from my mother, even though she didn’t voice it. What did this whole thing mean to her, to her relationship with Marcus? No one would have foreseen having a deranged monster for a stepson. And it isn’t too late to back out, the voice in my head added. It wasn’t. The wedding was a few weeks away, but that didn’t matter anymore now, did it? Not when everything had changed so dramatically.
“Rest, Ella,” my mother’s tired voice ordered me. “Take this time to rest. Everything will sort itself out later.” I wondered if she was saying that more to convince herself than to soothe me.
Chapter 17
Ella
I was the subject of more curious stares and whispers as I walked down the school halls a few days later, hoping to see Sarah before the first bell rang. I didn’t know what version of events everyone at school knew, and I wasn’t about to volunteer anything myself.
The house had been deathly silent when I returned from the hospital after an overnight stay. Not that the twins were ever chatty at home on normal days, but now there was a distinct gloom shrouding the empty house with both Hans and Cole away. Marcus rarely appeared, even for mealtimes, and when I did see him, he appeared tense, his shoulders stooped, as if a mighty weight had been placed on him overnight. I guess it had been. I’d heard my mom and Marcus argue, the night I arrived home from the hospital,
