Eight

 

 

Aria

I wake up in a soft bed, one I’ve never seen before, and for a second I get lost in the comfort of the plush pillows and down comforter I’m wrapped up in, wondering how I ended up in this comfy bed. Then everything comes back to me. The basement. Giovanni taking me. Attempting to throw myself out of the moving vehicle. I try to sit up but the pain in my abdomen forces me to stay still.

“Careful, sweetie. I need you to tell me where it hurts.” I jump at the sound of a female’s voice and see a woman sitting on the edge of the bed next to me.

“Who are you?” I look around to see where I am. I’m in a large room, most likely a master bedroom. The entire room is decorated in dark browns and creams. I’m lying in a king size four poster bed. All the furniture including the bed is made of what looks like real mahogany wood. The drapes are closed, leaving the room without light save for a single lamp next to me. On the wall across from the bed is a roaring fireplace which spans from the floor to ceiling with a flat screen television hanging over the mantle.

“My name is Vivian Fox. I am the on-call doctor here at the club. Giovanni asked for me to check you out. Can you tell me what hurts?” Something about the way this woman speaks and smiles softly at me, has me feeling suddenly at ease. She looks to be in her late forties, beautiful sandy blond hair pulled up into a low pony tail with comforting brown eyes that remind me of my mother. She patiently smiles at me and my heart craves the love of my mom. Ignoring the pain, I sit up to give her a hug hoping her touch will feel like my mom’s. Her being here is the first sense of hope I have had that I will finally be free… or at least safe. After a few minutes of crying in her arms while she simply hugs me without saying a word, I hear the door open causing me to jump back.

Giovanni walks in, no longer in his suit but in a pair of sweatpants and a shirt that make him look just as alluring as the suit does but in a completely different way. This man screams power no matter what he’s wearing.

They ask me some questions and I am shocked to learn Weston has been holding me captive for close to nine months. In less than two months I will be turning twenty-one. It felt like I was in the basement for so much longer and to think Weston would have been holding me there for another year, until I turn twenty-two, send shivers straight down my spine.

“Giovanni, can you give us some privacy, so I can check out Aria, please?” Dr. Fox asks. He doesn’t appear to be thrilled about leaving me alone, but he gets up and walks out and into what looks like an extension of his room. Maybe a sitting room? I’m not sure. She hands me a mug and I take a large sip. It’s cold water and it feels soothing going down my throat.

“Can you tell me what hurts?” she queries.

I put the now empty mug back on the nightstand. “My face. I think my ribs are broken, my stomach is aching, and I’m bleeding from my vagina heavily.” She gives me another soft smile and I appreciate the fact that she doesn’t look at me with pity.

“Giovanni, come here, please,” she requests.

He walks back into the room. “Everything ok?”

“I’m going to need some equipment. Can you have one of your men bring me the equipment from my trunk, please?”

After Giovanni leaves, Dr. Fox helps me remove Giovanni’s jacket and hands me the clothes that are next to the bed. “Go ahead and slip this shirt on for now. I want to check you out before you put on your shorts, though.”

“Ok, thank you.” She gently helps me slip the shirt on over my head.

Giovanni knocks once before walking in, and following him inside the room are the three men who work for him carrying several pieces of medical equipment. “Aria, in case you don’t remember. This is Rome...” He points to a good looking dark haired man who is slightly less built than Giovanni and a few years younger but just as handsome. “…Johnny.” The man I recognize as Giovanni’s driver tilts his head up. He is carrying a piece of what looks like heavy equipment. His biceps are bulging out with veins running downwards. His hair is a light brown and longer than the other men. It’s slicked back but not greasy. His eyes are a beautiful shade of icy blue and he’s sporting a neatly trimmed beard. I must be appraising Johnny too long because Giovanni makes an ahem noise with his throat, which causes the guy he hasn’t formally introduced me to yet, to laugh. “This is Caesar,” Giovanni finishes, his words coming out harsher than before.

“If you need anything, please let me know,” Caesar says as he sets down the medical bag he’s holding and steps over to me, taking my hand in his and giving the top of my knuckles a soft kiss. I flinch from his touch but I don’t pull back.

While Giovanni, Johnny, and Rome all look like men straight out of the Godfather, Caesar gives off a more playful approach. His hair is jet black and curly, and his face is clean shaven making him appear younger than the others. They all have faint accents, which if I had to guess are Italian, but they all speak English perfectly.

Caesar’s kiss lingers for a few seconds before Giovanni growls out, “Ok, set the equipment down and get back to work.” The three men all chuckle but do as he says. It’s obvious that while they work for Giovanni, they are all friends on some level.

“While you are here, if you need anything you come to me first. But if I’m not available, you can go to any of these three men. You can trust them, got it?” While I’m here? Does that mean he’s going to let me go?

I give Giovanni a small smile and thank the guys. Even though I’m almost ninety-nine percent sure he’s going to force me to stay here, I appreciate him trying to make me feel comfortable and safe, especially after going so long without feeling either one. Wow! You know your life has reached new levels of craziness when you’re thankful your new kidnapper is nicer than your previous kidnapper.

The three men leave—shutting the door behind them—and Giovanni goes back to the sitting room.

“I’m going to do an ultrasound first to see if we can find out why you are bleeding.” Dr. Fox lifts my shirt and squirts blue gel on the lower part of my stomach. I flinch from the pain I feel when she presses down. “I’m sorry, sweetie; because of the bleeding, I don’t want to go in vaginally unless I have to.”

She switches on a monitor and a black and white screen comes into view. “This is your uterus.” She points to the screen. She moves the transducer across my stomach continuing to spread the gel, not saying anything more. The silence is killing me but I am trying to let her do her job without asking a million questions.

“What’s wrong?” I finally ask.

She turns her face to me and for the first time since I met her a short time ago, she gives me a look of pity or maybe sympathy. “You are pregnant. Well, you were. There’s no heartbeat. The bleeding you are experiencing is your body naturally miscarrying. I’m so sorry.”

The thought of my body carrying a baby from one of the men who have raped me hits me hard. I lurch forward, and grabbing the first thing I can find—the mug I drank my water from—I vomit.

Giovanni rushes to me, holding the trashcan out for me just in time as I hurl again and again until there’s nothing left inside my stomach. My abdomen screams in pain but it’s the least of my concerns right now. “What happened?” His voice stays calm but I can hear the worry in his tone.

I finally stop heaving and answer, knowing Dr. Fox won’t. “I was pregnant and I’m losing the baby.” Baby. The thought of a helpless little baby in my uterus brings hot tears to my eyes. The baby might have been half of one of them, but the other half was me. It was my job to protect it and I didn’t. I should have known there was a baby in there. I should have protected my stomach better.

“Do we need to get her to a hospital?” Giovanni sounds worried.

“No. Aria, your body is currently doing what it’s made to do. I am going to prescribe you something for the pain and a prescription to prevent infection. I am also going to prescribe you a small dose of Xanax. But I’m going to have Giovanni give them to you. I don’t want you taking too much. Those drugs are highly addictive and we need to slowly ween you off them. Don’t worry sweetie, I will help you. I’ll come back in a few days to check on you.” Dr. Fox put her hands softly on my cheek. “I’m sorry for your loss, sweetie. This was not your fault.” It’s like she can hear the thoughts in my head.

“I should have protected it.” A single drop of grief wells up in the corner of my eye. I’m so sick of crying but the blows just keep coming one after the next. When will it stop?

“You were just under twelve weeks along. Your body knows how to protect itself. I know you are thinking this miscarriage was caused from you getting beat up, but you can’t know that. Miscarriages happen every day. It’s the body’s way of saying something isn’t right. There’s nothing you could have done differently.”

I know deep down miscarrying is for the best, especially given the circumstance, but it still hurts knowing there was something precious inside of me. Even if created from rape, it was still a baby with a beating heart. I’m not sure if I would have been able to make the decision to abort the baby or if I was still with Weston, if he would have given me the choice one way or another, so maybe it was fate’s way of handling the situation for me.

She digs into her briefcase and pulls out a couple sanitary napkins. “Mr. Valentino, please give us some more privacy, and can you please make sure Aria gets more sanitary napkins as well as underwear? She will be bleeding for a few more days.”

Giovanni looks from the doctor to me, his eyes haunted. He nods in understanding, and after placing the waste basket outside, he goes back to the sitting room. Once he’s gone, Dr. Fox helps me place a sanitary pad along the inside of the boxers Giovanni left out for me since I have no clothes.

 “Let’s look at the rest of you.” She begins to feel across my torso and I jump once she gets to the right side. “Take a deep breath for me.” I breathe in and out, the pain in my stomach radiating through me.

“That hurts,” I yelp when she hits a super sensitive area.

“It looks like you have a couple bruised ribs on your right side. Let me check to make sure they aren’t broken.” She walks over to a large suitcase and opens it up, pulling some weird looking machine out.

“What is that?” I question.

“A portable x-ray machine.” After she’s done setting it up, she has me lay still while she takes pictures. After assessing them, she says, “They aren’t broken which is encouraging. I don’t want to wrap them up because it can make breathing more difficult.” She grabs something from her briefcase and snaps it in half. “Keep this icepack on you.” Wrapping a small towel around it, she places it on my side, then tapes it on gently.

“It’s like you’re the doctor’s version of Mary Poppins,” I joke trying to make light of this entire horrific situation.

“Yes, I guess I am.” She laughs and I join in as well—the sound foreign to my ears—causing my ribs to ache in pain.

“Careful. I don’t want you to get up unless you must. I know you’re going to want to shower and you will need to use the bathroom but make sure someone helps you.” Dr. Fox moves up the bed to look at my face. I can’t even imagine how badly I look. If my pain is any indication, I most likely look like a truck ran me over then reversed to do it all over again.

After running a cleaning wipe over my forehead and face, which stings like a bitch, Dr. Fox says, “This should have gotten stitches but it’s too late. I will glue it the best I can.” She works on my face for a few minutes then gets up to throw the garbage away.

“I want to check your vaginal walls and make sure there’s not any damage. I know you are bleeding and normally I would wait but I want to make sure nothing has been damaged. I did an image test while doing the ultrasound so I know there’s no internal damage, which is a good sign.”

After putting gloves on, she gently pushes my legs apart and begins to check me out. My vagina is extremely sore and I feel myself wincing at her touch. I had assumed the bleeding was from the rough sex I experienced a few days ago—It didn’t start until after Weston and his friends left me in the basement.

“Ok, everything feels normal. I didn’t feel any tears. I will check you again once you are done bleeding.” She takes the gloves off and throws them away. She’s gone for a few minutes, during which time I hear the sink turn on. She must be washing her hands. Knowing we are about done and she’s about to leave me, my hands begin to shake, my heartbeat going erratic. I feel another anxiety attack coming on. Dr. Fox walks back inside the room and starts putting her equipment back into the suitcases.

“Dr. Fox, I know you are prescribing a low dose of Xanax but do you think maybe you can give me a little more?” My voice wavers as my heartbeat picks up speed.

She comes over next to me, and taking both hands in mine, smiles softly. “You have been given drugs for quite some time, sweetie. You don’t want to be dependent on them. I am going to recommend you begin to see a psychiatrist as soon as possible. She can be someone for you to talk to, to work through what you’ve been through, and she can also put you on the appropriate medications and doses. I will let Mr. Valentino know of a couple I recommend. Ones that specialize in what you’ve been through.”

“Ok, but my heart hurts right now.” I try to grip my chest. I’m working myself up, but I can’t stop it once it starts. Everything that has happened these last several months is weighing me down. It’s like I’m drowning and can’t come up for air. With each breath I try to take, another weight is added, sinking me further down, suffocating me. I sit up, starting to freak out, beginning to hyperventilate, needing to take a breath. My hands clutch my chest but it’s no use. The weights are too heavy. I can’t push them off me. I can’t come up for air.

Dr. Fox’s soothing voice breaks through. “Breathe slowly, Aria. Copy me.” She takes a deep breath in then lets it out, and I follow her lead, focusing on her breathing. We do this for a few minutes, slowly taking deep breaths in and slowly breathing out, until my body begins to calm down, each weight being removed one by one, the heaviness slowly leaving my chest, allowing me to finally come up for air and take a much needed, calming breath.

“Good, there you go.” I continue breathing slowly, copying her motions. Once my heart has slowed back to its normal pace, she opens a pill bottle. “You see. You calmed yourself down without taking a pill. We are going to get you on the right dose, but until then, take one of these to help you get some rest.”

Giovanni walks over to Dr. Fox and begins picking up the equipment, moving it to the side. “Just leave that machine here so I can check her in a few days,” she instructs him. Then turning to me she says, “Aria, if you need anything at all, you call me, ok?” She hands me her card.

“Thank you.” I lean over and give her a hug.

Giovanni and her both leave, closing the door behind them. Snuggling up into the sheets, my body starts to feel numb. It must be the pill she gave me to help me sleep. For the first time in a long time, I fall asleep without the fear of what I might wake up to.