The Glass Secret (Chain of Secrets) (13 page)
Read The Glass Secret (Chain of Secrets) Online
Authors: Leilani Bennett
“I shouldn’t leave you unattended.”
“Really...
crap
...I can’t pee when someone is watching me.”
She sighed and glanced toward the main door. “I’m the same way,” Katharine hushed, grimacing. “Okay, but I have to stand outside the door until you’re finished.”
When alone inside of the bathroom, I flashed at my reflection in the silver coated mirror. My image was distorted. From what I could see, I looked like
shit.
My face appeared sallow, slightly thinner, and terribly pale. Of course, the lighting in the bathroom caused an overall unflattering affect.
I had a yellowish bruise under my left eye and one along my jawline. I bit my lips, trying to draw some color into them as I tucked my wild tangled waves behind my ears. There was no reason to primp, and no time to either.
I quickly knelt down on the floor next to the small locker. I flushed the toilet to create a sound barrier, in case the locker made any noise when I unlatched it. Bingo!
Inside, I found my clothes neatly folded into a pile with only one high-heel beneath them.
One shoe? How odd.
I quickly fumbled through my jean pockets.
Nothing.
I grabbed my jacket and searched the pockets.
Nothing again.
When I began refolding the items, I felt something between the outer lining and the inner lining of my jacket. Quickly, I stuck my hand into the pocket, down through a small hole in the lining, and found my cell-phone. What a relief!
“Are you okay in there?” Katharine asked me through the closed door.
“Yes...just a minute,” I called back to her. My vision blurred, but I knew my phone like the back of my hand. Power on...with my thumb I scrolled to Nuilley’s number,
hit the send button...connecting...call failed...no service
!
Damn it! Try again.
I stood up, held the phone in the air, searching for a signal.
“Ms. Eden...” Katharine said, knocking softly on the door. I heard the handle wiggle.
“Please, don’t come in. I’m almost done,” I gasped.
“Ms. Eden...if you can hear me alright, I just have to say the doctor is really worried about you. We don’t know if you were involved in a raid, or well—that would have been just awful. He thinks you are suppressing what happened to you. We don’t blame you—you seem very confused...and well, I have noticed things too—like the way you speak so outwardly...and even your clothing—”
Oh shit.
“I’m coming out.” I reached over, flushed the toilet, knelt down again then quickly folded my clothes—pressed the locker door shut, with the phone still in my hand...thinking...
I need to hide this somewhere.
I quickly tucked it into the elastic waistband of the granny panties they had put on me. I pulled my battered body from the floor and managed to take a few steps, clinging to the walls. My strength was waning.
Back in bed...Katharine gently brushed the knots out of my messy hairdo.
Katharine was incredibly beautiful, but not in a super model way, something more internal, reaching, something that touches you from far away. Her beauty had nothing to do with her heart-shaped face, high cheekbones, or red-fringe setting off her light-green eyes, or her soft lips, and her full curves all in the right places.
“Miss Eden, your hair is so lovely. I always wanted long blond hair like yours.”
“Oh, I think yours is drop-dead gorgeous.”
“See, you say the dandiest things.
Drop-dead”
—she tittered—“Hum, but thank you—I thin
k
,” Katharine replied with a puzzled expression in her eyes, an
d
I winced.
What an odd girl
, I thought. “Just so you know it’s a compliment, Katharine. Oh, by the way, please, call me Brielle. I mean we are around the same age. Actually, I’m probably a few years older than you—but either way, it still feels funny you calling me Miss Eden all the time,” I admitted.
Katharine didn’t say anything, merely watched me and smiled curiously, but she didn’t say a single word. I hoped I hadn’t embarrassed her. That was not my intention.
There was something that was old about Katharine. Instinctually I knew she had seen things that most girls her age hadn’t or never would, but what? That didn’t matter. I innately knew this when I looked into her eyes. Soulful eyes. The only words that best described her, aside from incredibly beautiful, were an old soul.
I watched Katharine, she moved like a quiet breath of fresh air, as she tucked the blanket tightly in at my sides. My grandmother used to do the same exact thing.
She carefully placed the note Dr. Tagorski had given to me in my right hand. I felt safe with Katharine nearby. “There now, you should sleep...the medication they gave you should take affect soon,” she said, adjusting the side-rails that attached to the bed.
“Do you mind; can you please leave those down? They make me feel trapped.”
“I understand.” She smiled and complied.
Suddenly I felt a rush of affection for my caretaker. “Nurse Katharine, I would like to thank—”
Doctor Tagorski’s voice interjected, “Just doing my rounds and wanted to check in on you. How’s our star patient feeling? I’m sorry if we frightened you earlier,” he said as if he were speaking to a child.
Nurse Katharine’s face lit up, staring up at him in awe, capturing his eyes. Their gaze seemed to last a few seconds too long.
Hmm?
I sensed a stirring energy between them. She squeezed my foot, flashed him another smile, then retreated toward the door and exited. I liked her...as for my doctor, I wasn’t too happy with him at the moment. I considered him the pink elephant in the room!
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Captured
A resistance and unwillingness to move past where I was surrounded me. My complying nature hit into a wall of stubbornness. I felt his eyes appraising me. Chock-full o’ determination, I stared through him like he was a sheet of glass. Who did he think he was? He patiently waited for a response. Yet, I could not acknowledge him. I wanted to be left alone and engrossed in my private thoughts. I continued to ignore him, staring past him as if he didn’t exist. I supposed that could have appeared childish.
My eyes moved upward to the ceiling. The sound of the fan’s motor oscillating above me was hypnotizing. I closed my eyes still feeling heavily medicated. I listened to the sound of my own heartbeat.
I felt so damned cornered by the bizarre events toying with my memory, along with the string of distorted questions. If the doctor wouldn’t release me, I’d do the next best thing. I mentally checked out and pretended to fall back asleep.
Doctor Tagorski stayed in the room; I sensed him moving around the bed. At one point, he checked my pulse. I rolled to my side and restlessly slid my hand beneath the pillow to break our contact. Just a fraction of a moment had passed when I heard the sound of a woman’s heels padding across the floor, stopping at my bedside
“She’s sleeping again,” he said to whoever had entered into the room. “Okay, then. Sleep our little mysterious comet.” Surprisingly, Dr. Tagorski pushed back the long strands of my hair with a damp cloth. One minute he was stern, the next he showed more compassion than any doctor I have ever known in my life. “Do you think she’s involved in the movement?”
“Not a chance,” the female’s voice replied. It was Katharine. She was the one who had entered the room. I wanted to open my eyes and thank her for coming to my rescue, twice that day, but I didn’t dare.
“There’s something about her that defies our times,” Dr. Tagorski said.
“Yes, you’re right...she’s so different than women these days...like an old soul—a sassy one, too.” Katharine exhaled long. “Maybe she was born before her time, that happens you know?”
“Yes, I know,” he responded in an earnest tone.
There was a hush of silence.
What’s happening?
I felt an overwhelming urge to peek at them but again didn’t dare.
“I think that’s the case,” Katharine chimed in, breaking the silence in the room.
“Could be...and, what a razor sharp tongue on her...I can’t say I’ve ever heard a woman swear so nonchalantly,” he sighed, “but...since she claims to be from the states, well, from what I’ve heard American women are taking over. God, help us,” he said, followed by a hearty chuckle.
What is he talking about? Women haven’t just taken over. They are powerful leaders. He must have had his head buried in a textbook, for the last thirty years, explaining how do I pull my head out of my ass? I shook off the sudden visual of this.
“Hey, I’m from America too,” Katharine said then giggled.
“Yes, I know...and the most beautiful red-haired American woman I’ve ever seen.”
“Oh Doctor, I could say the same to you...you’re the most drop-dead gorgeous man in Paris—that’s a compliment,” she boldly said, after stealing my line. Well, it wasn’t my line, but a catch phrase coined by a journalist for
Time Magazine
in a 1985 issue about Michelle Pfeiffer.
“I’ve never had anyone pay me such a nice but interesting compliment. Thank you, but I have to ask have you been talking to our little alien?”
Alien?
They both broke into a quiet laughter; their banter was extremely flirty. I heard their footsteps crossing the floor in sync. With their backs to me, I took the opportunity to watch them from beneath my lashes.
Oh my God, Dr. Tagorski and Katharine were embracing. He leaned into her then kissed her, and she kissed him back.
No wonder he had capitulated, regarding my fate with the brain-frying chair, she had him in the palms of her hands, literally. I closed my eyes; it didn’t feel right to spy on them. They appeared to be in love. Maybe lust. No it was definitely love.
Then it hit me, a brilliant thought, if I was getting out of here with my mind intact, I had better have a back up plan.
Katharine confided in me that if I had any more outbursts Dr. Tagorski might resort to giving me electric shock treatment. I told her that I had thought that treatment had been banished. She confirmed it was a common practice in Paris, and it has helped many people who have had traumatic incidents such as I had.
The minute they released me, I planned to report how unjustified they had treated me to whoever would listen. Most people have no idea what still goes on in private hospitals...I had heard my share of horrific unorthodox medical treatments. Now I had experienced it for myself.
Back to my plan. What a fortuitous opportunity. I gripped my cell
,
pulled it out in a hurry, aimed and snapped two photos of them.
Thank God, the camera still worked. If electric shock treatment crosses Dr. Tagorski’s mind one more time, blackmail would cross mine. I was certain it wasn’t acceptable, even in Paris, to fraternize with a young nurse.
I double-checked to see if the photos had turned out, they did, perfectly. Even though it was just a photo, the love between them leaped from my phone.
I watched them for a moment more, stealing kisses. I could’ve taken even more pictures, unbeknownst to them. In lieu of my blackmail plan, to capture their passion in action would’ve made a nice gift for Katharine because she had helped me, but then again, maybe not, that may have been considered a crime. Not to mention, a little perverted too.
Suddenly, it didn’t seem right to keep the photos for the sake of my own fate. Contrarily, it felt wrong. I almost hit delete and erased the photos when I noticed an uncanny aura of light around them. It was magnificent. Even on my camera phone, the images were ominous and something that could never be duplicated again. I decided they were so worth saving after all.
They were like angelic ghosts with elevated souls, disappearing into each other. I wondered if it was their first kiss?
Not a chance
, I thought. The energy between them was unfettered and indescribable, like magic...and I captured it in its raw form.
At that second, I closed my eyes an
d
made a decision to comply with Dr. Tagorski’s methods, no more outbursts. I didn’t have the heart to taint the love between them with blackmail tactics. My anger had been tempered and comforted by witnessing their shared love for each other. It’s not everyday you get to see deep love transpiring between two people. There’s enough hate in this world and I didn’t want to become a part of it, no matter how someone treated me.
Besides, I didn’t have that kind of power to stop their love. That would be like trying to stop the sun from shining
.
They had a way about them, a quiet way, the same way the grass grows, or when the sun dips below the horizon. It’s ever so silent, but beautiful.
I knew their love would travel on as long and as wide as a river. I don’t know how long they embraced, kissed or stared into each other’s eyes behind the closed door of my room. It didn’t really matter
.
Soon, I fell victim to the sedative and drifted into the fog.
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