Total pages in book: 73
Estimated words: 68870 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 344(@200wpm)___ 275(@250wpm)___ 230(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68870 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 344(@200wpm)___ 275(@250wpm)___ 230(@300wpm)
The next moment, Lisa is snapping me out of my daydreams.
“Holy shit! Did you see that?”
“What?” I ask, looking back to the TV.
“Is he dead? Oh my god, please don’t be dead, Hot Brad can’t die!” she screams.
“What happened?”
“She punched him. That chick came out of nowhere! She punched him and he went down like a rock. He hit his head and now she’s gone. I think he might be dead right there on the street on live TV! Oh my god, I cannot believe you missed that!”
I squint at the TV. “Who punched him?”
“I don’t know who she was, but they’re calling her Nazi-Puncher now. And she’s a badass.”
“Are you crazy? You can’t talk like that in a government hospital! Besides, I thought you were in love with him.”
“I said he’s hot. I didn’t say he didn’t deserve to be punched.” She smiles and gives me a little shrug.
I turn my attention back to the television once again. Brad Chalmers is back on his feet, but the camera is still on him and reporters are clamoring for a comment. I’m surprised to see that the government didn’t use a delay on the feed to keep everyone from seeing one of their own get embarrassed. I watch as Chalmers dabs at his nose. Looks like the protester succeeded in breaking it once again.
That kind of violence, is this what Owen stands for? Even though I shouldn’t condone this kind of behavior, there’s something visceral inside me that liked it. There’s no long-term harm done to the man, probably. The chaos of that moment was satisfying to watch in a world that’s so structured and ordered. At least on this side of the city.
I don’t have long to think on it, because there’s an interruption as a group of EMTs bust through the doors with a woman on a gurney. Lisa and I run to help. The lead emergency worker holds an oxygen mask over the blonde woman’s mouth and nose as he speaks.
A panic falls over me.
“Law enforcement, found unconscious in her office just minutes ago,” he says.
I’m certain as I look at the blonde hair and tan face that this is the woman I suspected of being a mole in my yoga class this morning. The one I adjusted to give her a headache and make her muscles sore. Not to fall unconscious!
The team wheels her into the unit and work to resuscitate her. They hook her up to an IV line as she begins to breathe on her own. She’s not responding to anything we’re doing, and I’m terrified.
So much for not condoning violence. I just put one of my students in a coma.
Chapter Twelve
Minnie
Owen knew things would come to this. He predicted I would have a breaking point. But I denied it. Yoga was nonviolent. I was trying to do my part in a nonviolent way, but I’m beginning to see that might not always be the option. I’m seeing that even more now that I have a child of my own to protect. It’s already a love like I’ve never known, and it’s taking hold inside me.
I have no time to think what to do next, because the military police are checking in yet another new patient to the emergency room.
A tall man with a broken nose. None other than Chief of Staff Brad Chalmers.
I have to summon all strength to keep my fingers from shaking as I clean the blood off his face and set the cartilage in his nose without anesthesia. It was his choice to go without it. I bandage him up and put him in a wheelchair, which he doesn’t appreciate.
As soon as the radiology nurse wheels him away, I have to take a moment to breathe. Placing my hands on the counter of the exam room, I breathe in and out. Deep inhale through the nose, exhale through the mouth. The horror is coming in waves. What have I done to that woman? She was likely only doing her job. Maybe I should have talked to her. Made her see reason. But what if she would have taken me in on the spot? Made me disappear like they did my mother?
One moment I’m plotting how to raise a baby with Owen, the next I’m considering whether I should turn myself in for assault on the female Regime official. A knock on the open exam room door pulls my attention.
“I need a minute, okay?” I push past my lips.
“It’s not okay. I need you in my office. Now.”
It’s my supervisor, and she sounds pissed.
Shit. I follow her to her office.
“Sit down.” My supervisor Tina closes the door to her office. “Minnie, this is serious,” Her eyes are locked on me. My heart starts to pound and my hand protectively goes to my stomach.