Page 180 of Pucking Them
Silence stretches between us.
“You’re different to how I expected.” Olivia rests her hand on my sweaty forehead, as if a mom taking my temperature. I flinch. “You’re hot.”
My tongue feels too large in my mouth. “I n-need a d-d-doctor. Call an ambulance.”
“You’re already with me.” Olivia gives a smile that doesn’t reach her eyes. “I’m a doctor.”
My confused mind can’t work out why that’s wrong.
But it is.
Olivia pats my knee. “Now, let’s talk. You shouldn’t have tried to leave for another doctor. That was rude, when I’ve been trying to help you. Fix you.”
Fix me?
“I’m not b-b-roken.”
“But you are.” Olivia’s lip curls with contempt. “I already fixed your brother. You should have seen the mess that he was when he first came to me. Young, from a broken home, and filled with guilt that he shouldn’t have been feeling. He couldn’t trust or love. I helped him to learn how to do both.”
Bruno…?
Horrified, I stare at her.
She knows Bruno…? She was his therapist…more than that?
I attempt to stand to escape the room, but Olivia snatches me by the shoulders, keeping me in the chair.
I struggle, but my muscles are too weak.
“No more avoidance,” Olivia says, firmly. “You need to face your past.”
“What about yours?” I grit out. “How m-m-many ethical b-b-boundaries did you cross?”
“All of them,” Olivia casually replies. “Bruno and I fell in love. I was quietly sacked for serious professional misconduct for my inappropriate relationship with a patient, who is now my husband.”
My stomach lurches.
She’s Bruno’s wife.
Is that why Bruno was actually in Freedom?
He must know that Olivia is working here.
Does Bruno know that Olivia is my therapist?
Nausea sweeps over me.
I twist my head to the side and vomit.
Heaving, I gag.
Terror claws at my insides.
I am shaking with sickness.Has she poisoned me?
Olivia pulls my hair out of my face with a maternal tenderness that makes my skin crawl.
“Now look what you’ve done. What a mess. But youarea mess. Reading your notes made me realize what a disaster you are. Bruno could have ended up like you, if he hadn’t met me. You should have been grateful for my help, but I see now that you’re not worth it. You had your chance but you don’t deserve it.” Olivia is looking at me with a disgust that turns my stomach because I recognize it.It’s how Bruno looked at me. “I saw you kissing that other player in the corridor, before you kissed the coach’s daughter.”
