Page 49 of Deranged
It was a hefty book, and I only ever read the unabridged version. So many things were missed in the condensed version. It never made sense why someone would take the time to read a book but read a summary instead of the words the artist actually wrote.
I flipped through the pages. “Do you think Edmond would have had the will to free himself without the Priest’s help?”
Styx entered my room again and sat down in my desk chair. “I think he would have eventually, but he needed a reason to cling to that hope.”
I snorted. “What hope?”
“The hope that not everyone in the world is as terrible as the ones who wronged you.”
So far, mostly I’ve stayed away from anyone else, expecting them to betray me further. I only had so much optimism in me. The rest of it had been stomped out during childhood. Hope had always been in short supply in my life.
“Are you telling me to stay hopeful?”
She got up and walked to the door. “Yes, I’m telling you to stay hopeful. There are some of us who are trying to correct the wrongs of others. As your book says: wait and hope.”
Her footsteps were quiet as she left, my door still ajar so I could see down the long hallway to blank doors while the echo of the day room’s TV blared for the nurses.
A phone rang at the nurse’s station, and I settled back into my pillow with my new book. It had been a long time since I owned a new book.
The familiar words comforted me until Styx poked her head back into my room. “Her highness called for you. I took the liberty of telling her you weren’t up for a conversation just now.”
I laughed. “Thanks. Forever is not even long enough for me not to hear her voice again.”
She left, and I resumed my reading. At some point, the light in my room started to dim, and my eyes began to ache. I sat up and stretched, placing my open book face down on my bed. It would crease the spine, but I liked them worn that way. It was a sign of love for me.
I was about to go ask for a dinner tray when someone knocked on my door. Then opened it before I could say anything. I froze as my mother’s shadow fell across my feet. “Um…can I help you?”
She didn’t bother entering, only hovering at the doorframe. “Trust me, I didn’t relish coming back here, but I thought you should know your doctor wasn’t happy to hear about the deal you proposed.”
I jumped up. “You told him? Why would you do that?”
She shrugged like she didn’t have a care in the world. “It wasn’t my plan to tell him, but somehow he knew, and he called me to try and change the terms you requested.”
“To what?”
“Why would I tell you when it’s so much more amusing to watch him flail around trying to reach you.”
I knew my mouth hung open. “You are one sadistic bitch. How did you ever care enough about someone else to create me? I don’t understand how we’re related.”
She waved her hand. “That’s biology my dear, nothing more. I came here to tell you I’ve agreed to your conditions and even went so far as to have lined up a new job for your little boy toy. But I’m afraid he won’t stick to your end of the deal since he threatened to go to the news again. He’s a slow one for a man who graduated top of his class in medical school.”
“Is this about me, or about your revenge on him for deigning to think he can beat you?”
She made a face, and I took it as both. “What do you want me to do about it? I agreed not to go to the news, our deal had nothing to do with him.”
“And what if I added some stipulations to our negotiations. First of which are you never see him again?”
I waved around my room in a circle. “How am I going to see him when I’ll be locked away in here, and like you said, you got him a job across the country?”
God, I hated this woman. Heaven help the country when they elect her president. And no doubt she would be when she bribed, lied, and bullied her way to the top. A skill she’d always excelled at. “What do you want from me?” I whispered.
She shifted on her Chinese Laundry heels. Must be a slow day if she took off her red soles for even a minute. “I want you to get your doctor off my back and then keep to your word. Simple.”
“How do you expect me to do that if I can’t see him again?”
She held out her cell phone.
“Do you think that will work? Obviously, you had little luck with him over the phone. Because I doubt you stooped so low as to see him in person. No, I will have to see him to get him to let it go. I can convince him.”
