Chapter Ten #3
perfectly with her family. She wouldn’t have said that in the beginning when he
was shut down and silent, but he was more open and let his sarcasm flow.
It was time to hit Sosa with a question she’d never asked
before since it was so sensitive. “Why didn’t you want Milena to come live with
us here at The Garden, and you can’t say because she snores.”
Sosa chuckled after taking a sip of the tea. “Well, she
does. She need one of those things that goes over whole face at night.” She set
the cup back. “Fine. I do not want her here because she needs something else. I
need to be here, but Milena wouldn’t have been served well.”
Milena was another young woman from The Chateau. She’d been
Dr. Emmanuel Huisman’s assistant, though Vivian was sure he thought of her as
nothing more than a trained dog. She was there when Huisman nearly killed
Kenzie Taggart. She’d leaned in and whispered that she was Sosa’s friend and
pretended to give her the drugs that would have incapacitated her. Kenzie
Taggart was alive today because Milena chose hope over fear. And what had Sosa
done? She’d told Milena they weren’t truly friends, just victims who got stuck
together, and she didn’t want to be around victims anymore.
Vivian waited, not wanting to give up another question.
Silence was usually a good prompt. Everyone wanted to fill silence with
something.
Sure enough, Sosa sighed and gave in. “She spend all those
years learning to be evil doctor’s helper. Now she should go be good doctor’s
helper. But she will not do this if I don’t push her. She will stay and try to
take care of me. I didn’t want to do it. I don’t want to be alone. Milena… She
was like sister to me, and sometimes sisters must sacrifice for the good.”
This was why she would never give up on Sosa. Somehow there
was a bright light still in her soul. “Were you the one who convinced her to go
to school?”
“Cheating, but I will answer. No. I did convince Charlotte
to do it though. Milena is smart girl. She know more about medicine than many
doctors. It did not take much to convince the Taggarts to pay for her medical
school,” Sosa admitted. “Now she has future. I hear she’s doing well.”
Milena was at Charles University in Prague working toward a
medical degree. But she’d been heartbroken to lose her friend.
But Vivian didn’t believe for a second Sosa sent her off and
never checked in. Sosa was too possessive of her friends. She had a tight
circle, and she kept tabs on all of them. “Who do you have spying on her?”
Sosa’s head shook. “Nope. Only once will I give you. Now
that you have the mission you want, are you afraid to go into field?”
“No.” Vivian wasn’t scared at all. She was excited. “I think
it’s going to be fun.”
Sosa snorted. “You have seen people in the field, and some
of them die. Fun? That’s not worthy of you, Almost Doc.”
This was the problem with a dialogue scenario and why she
shouldn’t have started it. But here she was. “All right. I’m not saying that
fieldwork isn’t dangerous. I know it is, but it’s also necessary. I want this.
I’ve told you why, but maybe not all the reasons. Above all, I want to test
myself. I’m not trying to compete with my cousins. They’re brilliant
operatives. I don’t even want to be a full-time operative, but I want to know
if the team needs me in the field, I can go.”
Sosa studied her for a moment. “I thought you were going
back to America to get your doctor thing.”
She was in a state of indecision. She’d thought about going
back to America to get away from her problems here. But they would follow her.
“I don’t know. I love it here. I think I would stay here if I could, but there
are other factors involved.”
Including the moment when Mal didn’t need her anymore. She
was well aware that he was on a journey and she was a way to make himself feel
better. He would want to get serious eventually.
When you kiss me, I’ll know you’re serious.
She wanted to kiss him so badly.
“Why…” Sosa huffed, caught in her own trap. “Next question.”
“What do you dream about at night?”
Her expression went blank. “I don’t dream.”
“Sosa, you wake up screaming.”
She turned away and laid back down. “Fine. I dream of many
things. I dream about drowning. There was training to make sure we know how to
handle torture without giving information. They would hold me under water until
I almost pass out and then I would breathe and they would start again.
Sometimes the water is not clean. Sometimes it is from toilet. I dream about
beatings. There were many of those. So many I started to think of them as
normal. Most of my bones have been broken.”
“Your medical records are clear about the abuse you
suffered.” Sosa’s medical records were a horror story. “It would be odd if you
didn’t have nightmares.”
“The older girls like to torment us. They would set us up
for more punishments.” Sosa’s voice took on that low monotone Vivian had heard
from her before. “There was one girl. She was the golden girl. It’s funny that
even in what is essentially a prison camp there are favorites. Everyone thinks
she is smartest. She was years older than me and wasn’t around most of the
time. She was on what they call long-term missions. But when she was at The
Chateau, she would corner me and hit me and set me up for worse pain. She hates
Gabby, too. I think it was because Gabby look like her. People talked about it
and say Gabby was still more beautiful. I don’t know why she hate me. Perhaps I
remind her of someone who hurt her. I don’t know. She set my bed on fire one
night and then accused me of smoking, which was not allowed. I was locked in
the dungeons for three weeks without light or heat. There was no bed, but there
were many creatures to keep me warm. I had to fight some of them for food and
water. It’s hard to eat when you can’t see anything. They would bring the food
once a day and shine that light in my eyes. I hated it because it hurt and
stunned me for a moment every time. I started closing my eyes when I hear them
coming. That is what I dream of when I scream. I dream of the darkness and the
surety that there is no light left for me.”
It was the first time Sosa had talked honestly about the
pain she felt. “You don’t ever have to go back there again, you know.”
“I know that is what everyone think, but I also know that
things tend to come full circle. We will see.” She turned and propped her head
on her palm. “I’m tired. Can we talk about TV shows? Or maybe what will happen
when your father realizes how old Mal is?”
“He’s not that old. He’s barely ten years older than I am.
Which, I might point out, is roughly the same age difference between Ian and
Charlotte.”
“Age does not matter when one is immortal,” Sosa said. “Ian
does not age. He simply becomes more sarcastic. I want to become Ian when I
grow up.”
She was already halfway there.
Sosa started talking about the latest romantasy she was
reading.
Vivian had to think. Was taking Sosa on this mission going
to be damaging, or would facing the threat be empowering?
No matter what, Vivian knew she had her own threats to face,
and she had to decide how brave she was going to be.