Page 38 of The Forgotten

“We rejected her to protect her,” Aled says, swallowing hard.

“That didn’t work,” Gareth says, watching as Maddox pushes a button to let the doctor through the gates and opens the front door. “If you’re too chicken shit to say it, I will.”

Olivia’s getting paler and paler, long passed out from the pain and shock of cutting herself.

“We kill Dad,” Gareth grunts, ignoring the doctor as he walks in.

“Lalalalal, I didn’t hear shit,” Dr. Royal says, moving quickly to the girl. “Do you know who this fucking is?”

“We do know,” I sigh. “Apparently, Olivia gets around.”

“Gross, she does not,” he mutters, pulling out his supplies and snapping on gloves as he lifts one of the towels from Olivia’s arms. He disinfects and cleans the wound, and then begins to stitch it up. “I’ve never known her to be suicidal. You guys really fucked up, didn’t you?”

“Hold the lecture, please,” Maddox says, locking the door. “We’re aware we’re looking at a war. You can’t tell anyone what you saw here.”

“I think you’re overstepping how much I care about Doctor-patient confidentiality,” Dr. Royal states. “She’s my patient, you’re not. This is clearly a scream for help.”

“We need some time to figure things out before her family gets involved,” Gareth says, surprising us all. “I’m not saying that to protect us, but because adding anything else to this shitstorm will deeply compromise her health.”

“Are you seriously threatening her in front of me?” Dr. Royal asks.

“Not at all. It’s not us you need to worry about,” Gareth says, sniffing.

The doctor takes in how distraught Gareth is before blowing out a breath.

“I was never here,” he says finally. “I didn’t hear anything, but I understand that you may not be completely behind the reason that she attempted to kill herself. Olivia Quinn isn’t going to bend under any kind of fucked up biology you may be hoping she’ll be influenced by. She’ll keep trying until she accomplishes what she wants.”

“You seem to know her really well,” Maddox says, his lip curling at the thought.

We’re so messed up. We don’t want her, but we don’t want anyone else to express interest either. Dr. Royal is younger than us by over ten years.

“Did she stop cutting here?” Dr. Royal asks, ignoring my brother as he moves to the next arm.

There’s a more jagged cut on her inner left arm, showing me that she was interrupted.

“I found her trying to kill herself and yelled at her to stop,” Gareth says dejectedly. “I shouldn’t have let her go upstairs alone.”

“That was out of your hands,” I say. “You couldn’t have followed any earlier than you did.”

Dad would have leveraged Olivia even more against him if he knew that Gareth cared about her.

“Hmm,” the doctor murmurs to himself. “She could either scar or heal this herself. There’s no way to know. Do you know anything about her or did you see something pretty and decide you wanted her?”

“We’re learning as we go,” Maddox says. “I guess we have a murder to plot.”

“Fuck,” Dr. Royal curses.

“You didn’t hear shit,” I confirm. “It has to be before Dad decides to fuck her.”

My tongue is looser than normal, and I’m not sure why.

Maddox glances at where the doctor’s features are pinched, and shakes his head for me to stop talking. He’s right, the doc can’t handle talk of patricide and stitch up Olivia. Pressing my lips tightly against each other as a reminder to shut up, I wait until he finally stands.

Pushing myself off the wall, I grab the nearby wastepaper basket so he can deposit the towels and his gloves.

“Only call me if you’re close to death,” Dr. Royal complains.

“Even if it’s for her?” I ask, my chin jutting in her direction.