Chapter 5 - The Testimony of the Broken
I went back to the hospital that evening,
the weight of the day’s discoveries pressing down on me.
Gwen was awake,
hooked up to several IV drips that were pumping life back into her veins.
She looked so small against the white sheets,
like a porcelain doll that had been dropped and glued back together.
I sat beside her,
taking her hand,
which was cold despite the warm room.
"I found the room,
Gwen,"
I whispered,
the words catching in my throat.
She closed her eyes,
a single tear tracking through the pale dust on her cheek.
"I didn't want to tell you,
Lucas,"
she said,
her voice barely audible.
"They said if I told you,
they would make sure you lost the bid."
"They said you cared more about the company than me."
"Brenda told me I was a burden,
a low-class girl who didn't deserve the Dawson name."
She began to shake,
the trauma resurfacing in jagged waves.
"She would make me watch them eat,"
she continued,
her voice rising in a thin,
panicked pitch.
"She would describe the food,
the flavor,
the texture."
"And then she would throw the bones on the floor and tell me to be grateful."
"Gavin...
Gavin would record it on his phone."
"He said it was 'content' for their friends."
I felt a coldness settle into my bones,
a detachment that allowed me to listen without screaming.
She told me how they had intercepted her mail,
how they had changed the password on her phone.
They had isolated her until she believed that the basement was her only home.
She told me about the nights they left her there without water,
the nights she had to lick the condensation off the pipes just to stay hydrated.
All while I was in 5-star hotels,
calling home and being told everything was "wonderful."
"I started to believe her,
Lucas,"
she sobbed,
turning her face into the pillow.
"I started to believe I was nothing."
I pulled her into my arms,
careful of the wires and her fragile frame.
"You are everything,"
I said,
my voice iron-clad.
"And they are nothing."
"The world is going to know what they did."
"You don't have to be afraid ever again."
I stayed with her until she fell into a medicated sleep,
watching the monitor that tracked our son’s heartbeat.
It was steady now,
a rhythmic thump-thump that sounded like a drum in a quiet forest.
He was fighting,
just like his mother.
May you like
And I was going to make sure they had a kingdom to return to,
one purged of every trace of Brenda and Gavin.
