Page 28 of Watch Her Bleed
“Some STIs require a saw, not a blood test,” Kaia says.
“Will you please stop?” I ask quietly.
“Aurora,” Matt says softly.
“No,” I say, shaking my head.
“Please look at me,” he says. I sigh heavily and sit up to look at him. He cups my cheek and wipes away my tears with his thumb.
“I can’t imagine what you are feeling right now, but I assure you, you have absolutely nothing to worry about. You have no reason to feel embarrassed. You’ve done nothing wrong,” he says softly.
“It makes me feel dirty,” I whisper.
“I know,” he says. “But you want to know something?”
“What?” I sniff.
“You feeling this way is how they’ve been able to keep control over you,” he says. “They’ve made you believe that you have something to be ashamed of; that somehow you were consenting because you didn’t know how to fight for yourself.”
“How am I supposed to fight now when I couldn’t fight then?” I ask.
“Oh, my sweet tesoruccia,” he says sweetly. “You need to let the people around you fight for you. You don’t have to do it alone. Kaia fights for you, even if she is a tiny little gremlin. The doctor wants to fight for you. He wouldn’t be sitting here with you if he wasn’t dedicated to helping survivors. Milo and Luca don’t care about many people, but they care about you,”
“And you?” I ask.
“I’m not going anywhere, tesoruccia,” he says sweetly.
“You’ll have to temporarily,” I say. “You’re sweet and all, but I don’t even want to be here for this test.”
“Kaia will be here?” he asks.
“She’s like a growth that doesn’t go away but you learn to love,” I say and Kaia laughs. “Yeah. She’ll be here.”
“Okay,” he smiles. “We are going to be outside. My number is on your phone now, so just text me when you want us to come back. We’ll go get something to eat after.”
“Ya know… Because you dropped ours,” Milo says, making me smile. “We should probably call Maria so she’ll stop blowing our phones up.”
“Yeah. Tell her I’ll call her later on tonight, please,” I say.
“You’re going to be okay, Aurora,” Matt says. “You may not understand just yet, but you will in time.”
Chapter Ten
Mattia
“He had some fucking nerve coming here,” Luca says when I shut the door to Aurora’s room.
“I’m going to break his fucking neck,” I growl. “He came into that room and threatened her in front of everyone. Her fucking parents sat there and knew exactly what he meant and they didn’t say shit.”
“I think you’re right,” Milo says. “Something’s up with that family.”
“Oh, you mean them letting their son rape their daughter?” I ask.
“Beyond that,” he says. “Something is off.”
“Get anything back on her background?” I ask.
“I got the basics for Kaia. She grew up in what seems to be a good home. She stayed in the same school district as Aurora,” Alonozo says. “She has a lead foot and has gotten three speeding tickets this year.”
