Total pages in book: 197
Estimated words: 199143 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 996(@200wpm)___ 797(@250wpm)___ 664(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 199143 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 996(@200wpm)___ 797(@250wpm)___ 664(@300wpm)
“It was about Penny.”
Okay, that had Roz’s attention. She turned around on the stool entirely so that she could face Kyle for this conversation. She had a feeling, just by the way his tone turned thick, that she was going to need to be sitting down and staring at him for whatever he was about to say.
“And?” she asked quietly.
“They wanted to know if she’d ever ... uh, talked to me about her father,” he muttered.
Roz took a second before she asked, “Why would they ask about that?”
“She’s made allegations while in the ward.”
She was cold, now.
Entirely cold.
Too fucking cold.
“What kind of allegations?” Roz asked.
She didn’t want to ask.
She didn’t want to know.
Still, she felt like she had to.
“That ... uh,” Kyle struggled, refusing to meet Roz’s stare.
“That kind of allegations?” Roz asked.
“Sexual abuse?” Naz spoke up behind her.
Kyle swore under his breath, and scrubbed a hand down his jaw. “Yeah, that’s what it sounded like to me. She made some serious allegations when the Bobbies were brought in to talk to her about an investigation they have for something she did in the dorms against another girl who she had beaten up in the communal showers.”
Roz straightened. “Why did she beat up a girl?”
“I don’t know. Maybe she said something that triggered her?”
She looked over her shoulder at Naz, but he was staring hard at Kyle. She could tell by the tension in his shoulders, and the hardness of his gaze, that he wasn’t pleased. And not because of Kyle, but because of the rest of the information they had right now.
“They don’t think she’s saying that just because of the investigation about the girl, right?” Roz asked Kyle.
“I don’t think so ... but the bigger problem is this isn’t their territory,” Kyle said, shrugging and looking helpless. “This happened in America—they can’t bring charges against an American for something that happened in America. They’re referring the case on, but she’s underage. They’re going to send her home, she’ll be in the care of CPS until they get this figured out and—”
“No,” Roz said, firmly.
“What?”
“She doesn’t need to be in the care of CPS. We can figure something else out for that. She can stay with me and Naz, even. Right?” She looked back at Naz who met her stare, but said nothing. When he stayed quiet, she pressed again, asking, “Right?”
“Roz, that girl probably needs a lot of help and—”
“Okay, then we get her what she needs, Naz.”
“She might not be comfortable with a man there.”
“We don’t know that if we don’t ask.”
“Okay,” he murmured, clearly not wanting to fight.
Kyle cleared his throat, bringing their attention back to him. “They kept sending her home, Roz. She’d act out, and they’d send her back. Where he was waiting. I got the impression that the allegations she made indicated it had been a regular thing until she left for school, but it continued through the years. So ...”
“Every time she got sent back,” Roz whispered.
What kind of father ...
What kind of monster?
Roz felt Naz’s had find her back, and he said nothing as he stroked her just below the neckline of her shirt. Like she was the one who needed to be comforted then. It wasn’t her that needed someone to love them and protect them at all.
She had always had people to do that.
Penny, though?
Clearly never had anyone.
The Aftermath (of England): Part 2
Roz POV
The sixteen-year-old tucked into the window bench, overlooking the backyard of the infirmary where she had been placed—a temporary hold until, one, she was no longer a threat to herself, and two, they figured out what to do with her by placing her somewhere safe—didn’t even acknowledge Roz when she approached. She didn’t take it personally. It was quite obvious that Penny Masterson had plenty of things on her plate to deal with it, and Roz bet she was simply a very small portion of that.
“I noticed they have a music room down the hall,” Roz said.
Penny didn’t look away from the window.
Roz didn’t let the silence bother her too much. Stuffing her hands into the pocket of her dress, she peered around the quiet room that seemed to be some type of area for communal gathering for the patients. Stark white, the walls and floors gleamed. The light fixtures above were the same bright white and flush with the ceiling. A setting of couches and chairs had been set up in one corner next to a row of bookshelves, and another sitting section in the other corner faced a large flat-screen television. Toward the west side of the room, hallways leading further into the complex showcased a few scattered people moving from what seemed to be different rooms.
A single woman wearing gray scrubs came out of the hallway, but didn’t even pass Roz a look before she disappeared behind a door where a wall of Plexiglas windows gave them a clear view of the many medications sitting on shelves.