Chapter XXV

        January felt sick, scared and too confused. The doctors nursed the burns that had formed around her neck. After popping two pain killers her family was ushered in.

          “Ah, Janus!” Lily wrapped her arms around January’s shoulder. Lily was frozen until George spoke.

          “Why you do it?”

          January felt like she couldn’t talk. Her throat was sore but fear was keeping her lips sown shut.

          Lily threw her handful of tissues into the trashcan. She was trying to buy time, January could tell but Lily still wanted answers.

Normally when Lily was trying to buy time she was making up a plan. As a child January can to fear that and as a young adult she stilled feared it.

Lily spun around on her toes and screamed. “I love you Janus! How could you?”

The female doctor stuck out her hand. “Ma’am if you’re going to raise your voice then I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”

Lily looked crestfallen and smoke was blowing from her ears but she said calmly, “What’s wrong?”

It was on the tip of her tongue, she wanted to say something, but her mouth was frozen solid. Three seconds after Isabel and Amadeo walked though the door.

Amadeo’s eyes looked cold, as if there was no emotion to be felt. He wore his leather trench coat and looked intimating in it.

The words ‘You’ll end up pregnant’ rang in her head like a bell. Rather then keep eye contact with her father she looked over to her mother and shook her head.

“Amadeo, George, Isabel, leave now. You being around is hurting her more then helping.” Lily spoke with authority. She looked ferce, but fear tends to do that to people.

Amadeo turned a deep red and opened his lips but Isabel placed a pale hand on his arm.

“I’m sorry. Lily must have said that not really meaning it." Isabella spoke carefully.

“B***h.” Amadeo hissed. “She’s my damn child too!”

Her father’s angry voice faintly reminded her of her childhood. Amadeo and Lily would sometimes fight once a week and January grew to hate that tone of voice, because it was the same one that drove Lily way.

“No.” Isabel said to Lily “I believe you should leave.”

“Dad, you can stay…” January said.

Lily looked sad but happy; it was the first words she had spoken when at the hospital.

Isabel squeezed Amadeo’s arm before turning around to leave the room. Once the door was shut January could feel her heart beat twice as fast.

The doctor looked up at the heart monitor but nodded when Lily asked if January was okay.

“What happened?”

“I…I’m pregnant.”

Amadeo’s face contorted with anger. Lily began to weep.

“How could you? How stupid! I can’t…”

“I was raped!” January yelled.

For a moment the room was quite. Lily wept more, and Amadeo went from anger to fear and back to anger.

“Oh baby!” Lily kept crying and Amadeo shot her a look to tell her to stop but she kept on.

“So, then what happened?”

“I thought this boy and I would date and we went to an art show together. He drugged me…”

“When did this happen?" Lily interrupted.

“Late September. I’m in my third trimester.”

“So this bustard drugged you…”

Crying January said, “And dragged me into the woods where he raped me. I was found the next morning and they called 911.”

“You went to the hospital and never told us?” Amadeo said.

“And I asked for a rape kit at the hospital…”

“Which?”

January’s mouth felt dry and after a sip of water she said. “It’s a hospital NYU uses.”

 Amadeo and Lily both stepped away from January. At first she was wondering if they wanted away from her but instead they talk amongst themselves.

There were many beads of sweat of Lily forehead and Amadeo had his arms crossed and his eyes tightly shut.

Their voices were so low that January couldn’t hear, but she doubted that she wanted to. This was a first though; they weren’t fighting but trying to come to a solution.

“What’s doing to happen to me now?” January finally asked. She left like a third wheel but in reality was the motor behind all that was happening.

“According to the doctor you may end up in the psych ward for a few months and you can be sure we’ll take that jerk to court.” Amadeo answered. Lily didn’t look too happy that he had spoken but she said nothing about it.

Reviews

[Tina Kline]

I'm glad her secret is out but I hope she doesn't stay in a psych ward at all. It's obvious what is wrong with her and I don't think she needs to be in a hospital. Out patient treatment should work but I think just getting support now will do wonders for her. The burden is no longer hers alone to carry now.