Total pages in book: 134
Estimated words: 126485 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 632(@200wpm)___ 506(@250wpm)___ 422(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 126485 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 632(@200wpm)___ 506(@250wpm)___ 422(@300wpm)
Did he now? He was obviously pissed at me. I ignored his comment and stepped into the room where a single bed was in the center, surrounded by machines that were attached to a pale figure. Deep down I knew it was Imogen, but I hardly recognized her. She was a shadow of the sister I last saw. She was thin, much thinner than I’d ever seen her—and she’d tried every diet on the planet in her quest of becoming a model. Her hollow cheeks were stretched wide because of the breathing tube disappearing between chapped lips. Her blond hair was matted and had been shaved on her left side, where a long scar now marred her skull. Tubes were coming out of it, draining some sort of liquid from her head. Nausea washed over me. The hint of bruising was still visible all over her body. I crept toward her, completely distraught at the sight of my ambitious sister being so lifeless, a bare shell.
I grabbed one of her hands. Even though she looked dead, she was warm. Her chest was rising and falling slowly. I swallowed past the lump in my throat.
“What happened?” I croaked. “You said the man she was with wouldn’t hurt her because he knew you were Imogen’s brother-in-law. You said he wasn’t the violent type. This doesn’t look like it.” My voice had taken on a hysteric edge, but I couldn’t help it. The last twenty-four hours had been too much. I hadn’t slept at all.
From the corner of my eye, I saw Lorcan coming closer. Part of me wanted to send him out again, but I needed answers. And I didn’t want to be alone. Imogen wasn’t really here.
“I did my own investigation. Nothing points to her original sponsor being the culprit. It seems she found a new sponsor with even more money in St. Barts. She moved to his yacht and that’s the last thing I could find out. Somehow, she ended up ashore on a beach in Miami.”
It could have happened that way. It wasn’t unusual for Imogen to leave one man for a better option.
“They beat her severely before they dumped her in the ocean. She was lucky a hooker found her in the early morning hours. She was about to give a john a blowjob on the beach.”
Sickness rose in me when I imagined Imogen floating lifelessly in the ocean, dumped there like garbage, as if she was something you could just dispose of.
“Your sister was lucky the hooker didn’t just turn a blind eye. Most of them want to avoid trouble and a half-dead woman always means trouble. Her john took off, but she called the police and an ambulance.”
I could hardly breathe past the lump in my throat.
“Due to her head injury, they needed to cut her open to relieve some of the pressure. She’s been in a vegetative state since then. She was admitted as Jane Doe. They thought she was a hooker who was beaten by her john. It was a lucky coincidence that one of my contacts in my Miami kept an eye out for unknown females. I prefer to be prepared.”
“When did you find out?” I stroked my thumb along Imogen’s dry hand. Maybe she could feel my presence. She wasn’t dead, so she still had to be in there somewhere.
“About ten days ago. She was found a couple of days before I got the call.”
I stroked Imogen’s skin once more before placing her hand gently down on the bed. I left the room without a word. Lorcan followed and closed the door. I was close to tears, on the verge of losing it completely. How would I tell Mum about this? She suspected the worst and so had I. This wasn’t that, but it was close. And Finn.
Oh Finn. Should I even tell him?
He stopped asking about Imogen. Maybe I should just allow him to move on.
I knew what was coming when Aislinn left the room. I could feel her anger rolling off her in waves.
The moment the door was closed, she rounded up on me. “You had no right to keep the truth from me! Imogen is my sister. You knew I’ve been searching for her for months, and you never bothered to tell me that she was in a hospital right around the corner from you fighting for her life!”
“She’s not fighting for her life, Imogen. She’s on death’s doorstep. The doctors made it very clear that her chances of ever waking up are slim, and even if she wakes, she won’t be the sister you last saw in Dublin. They beat her to a bloody pulp.”
Aislinn flinched and her face turned even redder, her eyes flashing with rage. “You had no right to keep this from me!”
“I wanted to protect you from the harsh truth.”