Chapter Six
Verena woke up to the feeling of movement.
Her eyes fluttered slightly as the light hit her eyes.
She fully opened her eyes to see that she was in the backseat of a car.
She felt panic surge through her body and sat up straight in the seat.
She darted her eyes around to see Praxis was driving the car.
His jaw was locked, and his hands tightly gripped the wheel.
Verena looked at the door to see it had a child lock so jumping out of the car wasn't an option. Praxis must have sensed Verena's movement because he looked in the rearview mirror to see her panicked expression.
"Hey. Hey. It's just me Verena. We are going home." He assured her quickly.
Home. It wasn't home anymore. She doesn't belong there and never would again. She would be dead the second she stepped through the door. Riven would not let her live for what she did.
She still felt dizzy from the sedative. It was sure not the first time she had been sedated.
It always took her a minute to break through the haze of the sedatives.
She wanted to feel hurt by the fact that Praxis would have her sedated, but she shouldn't have suspected anything else.
She knew she was out of control in his and the doctors' eyes.
Meanwhile Praxis couldn't stop thinking about it. He felt horrible but no one could get through to her. She continued to scream and run out of the room. After the sedative took effect, Praxis gave the doctors permission to examine her.
The bruises on her wrists were confirmed to be from being roughly restrained.
The scabbed scratches on her arms were self-inflicted.
Doctors guessed it was a stress mechanism.
They wiped off the makeup on her face and bruises were revealed from being slapped.
Her selective mutism was determined to be from the trauma she suffered.
She was also malnourished and the nurses provided Praxis with a diet plan to get her back into a healthy eating routine to get her back to a normal weight.
She had multiple bruises on the rest of her body along with scars.
The scars were years old. Praxis assumed she got them when she was first admitted.
That wasn't the case though, but Verena wasn't going to tell him.
Praxis had called Davian to tell him everything, and Davin only responded with "I'll take care of it." And hung up the phone. Praxis knew what that meant.
Praxis was drowning in guilt. They sent her to be tortured. She needed help and this was far from it. Now they would have to face the repercussions of their horrible mistake of sending her to that hell. How he wished he could have gotten her out of there sooner.
He didn't give a shit what his brother's thought about her being home again. He was going to choose Verena over them if they made him choose. He refused to be tested by them.
When Praxis pulled up to the mansion, he looked in the rearview mirror to see Verena staring blankly out the window.
He was worried about her. He didn't want her to be with all of their brothers.
He wanted to take her to his condo he recently bought but Davian was having none of it.
Praxis feared that being around their brothers would make her mental state worse, but Davian seemed convinced it would be fine. The idiot.
"Verena," Praxis started with a sigh, "No one is going to lay a hand on you, especially Riven. Davian sent them all out for a bit so you can adjust a little."
Verena didn't respond and continued to stare out the car window.
Praxis sighed and got out of the car and walked to the back door.
Verena didn't move. She only looked up at Praxis with a blank look.
It was if she was somewhere else. She was disassociating.
He had no idea that a menacing voice that had taunted her was talking to her now.
"Verena. Come on honey." He said trying to ger her attention.
When Verena still didn't make any effort to move, Praxis slowly reached over her to avoid scaring her and unbuckled her seatbelt. This seemed to break her out of her trance, and she flinched away from him.
"It's okay. Were at the house." He tried to talk as softly as he could.
Verena did not want to go in, but she had no choice. She got out of the car and followed Praxis to the front door. He put in the passcode for the door and with a click he opened the door.
Verena noticed everything looked the same before she was sent away. It still didn't feel like home. It never would. She accepted that a long time ago.
"You need to eat something. Come with me to the kitchen. I'll make you something." Praxis told her with a slight smile.
She wasn't even the slightest bit hungry. She didn't eat much and when she did, she couldn't stomach very much food. The nurses had forced feeding tubes multiple times at the hospital when she refused to eat. She feared what Praxis's reaction would be when she would resist eating meals.
She followed Praxis and she glanced towards the living room to see one of her brothers on the couch. Verena felt her face flush and sucked in a breath.
Praxis looked back to see what made her freeze and saw their twenty-five-year-old brother sprawled out on the couch watching TV.
"Azryn? What are you doing here? I thought Davian sent you out for the day." Praxis questioned as he gently pushed Verena behind him.
He knew Azryn wouldn't make a move to hurt her, but he was trying to show Verena that he would protect her and that she was safe with him.
Azryn turned to look at Praxis. His faced morphed into surprise when he saw his little sister behind him.
"What is she doing here? I thought she was in the loony bin." He asked not in anger but in curiosity.
Praxis rolled his eyes at the choice of words of his older brother. "Loony bin? Really man? Again, what are you doing home?"
"I knew something was going on since Davian was demanding we left for the day. I wanted to stay and see why. Looks like I have my answer." He said as he nodded towards Verena.
"We are trying not to overwhelm her." Praxis rolled his eyes.
Azryn snorted as he moved his messy brown hair out of his eyes. "Good luck with that. Why is she dressed like that? Her hair isn't even brushed. She looks like shit."
Verena felt self-conscious as she looked down at her worn white t-shirt and light brown sweatpants.
"The conditions weren't exactly...glamorous. They didn't really give her anything." Praxis explained.
"Huh." Azryn pondered and then turned his attention back to the TV.
Praxis once again rolled his eyes at his brother and once again motioned Verena to follow him to the kitchen.