"So, I don't understand; how did you come to be here? Do you know Ryder's new friends?""Yes, of course, come on upstairs and have a rest, I bet you have a million questions, and we didn't get to talk a lot the last time we met." I felt very calm in her presence, almost like you'd expect to feel after a long day spent at the spa being pampered.When she led me up the grand staircase to the largest master suite I'd ever seen, which seemed to be the only room in the house that had been decorated in any way, I followed without complaint. This room was gorgeous, and I noticed that it had many of the things I would've liked and chosen myself, which meant Ryder had done this. But how did he know that I would agree to come here?"Your young man told us what you liked, and we had it taken care of. It's a bit rush, and he did say that you would be redecorating at some point, so don't mind if it's not exactly as you would've liked.""Are you kidding? It's gorgeous; I love it." Even the green cur

"Did you eat?" I didn't want to take time away from her to go deal with everything she'd shared right now. And besides, my plate was already full to the brim, and I could do with a break. It didn't help that the only person I really wanted to talk to about everything that was going on was the one person I wished to keep that ugliness away from."No, I thought I'd wait for you." She blushed, and I kissed the tip of her nose, wondering how long it would be before this feeling of giddiness went away. I hope never; I hope I never grow to take her and our time spent together for granted again. I still get a hitch in my heart at how close I came to losing her forever.In fact, it still feels like a dream come true that she's even talking to me, and that welcome I just received is something I thought it would take me years to earn. Not that I'm complaining, one of the things I knew about her is her forgiving heart and how easy it used to be for me to get back into her good graces, but this ti

"You straight? It's time to get out of here. Be sure to take everything you need because you won't be coming back here for a while." Tyler came into the room to find me standing there, lost in thought. Every once in a while, I'll get hit with a flash of memory that I wasn't sure was real, and I'll have to stop and think it through to make sure that I wasn't having some type of withdrawal effect.Right now, though, I was thinking of the best way to play this. I have to think about Elena with my every move now, and since she didn't know what I was involved with, the way things may look to her, and the way the press was going to play this, it could very well set us back.I kept my head down as we left because there was nothing more fun than reading everyone's thoughts on what I was feeling or doing. No doubt the headlines will read that I was bereft and heartbroken or some other such crap because they'd been conditioned for the last five years to believe that I was deeply in love with tha

"Why can't I have my phone? Aren't you people done figuring out that it's fine yet?" It's been days since I heard anything from the outside or was allowed to contact anyone, and I was beginning to think that I'd been kidnapped and no one else knew where I was. It's not normal, is it? That no one came to check on me, and no one called?I wouldn't say the staff has been deplorable, but they're not very accommodating. My every demand has been ignored, and the food here sucks. I'm not dead, whatever the case may be, so I don't see why I can't have what I want for dinner. Is this how they really treat people in hospitals? "And why are my hands still tied?"This new bitch wasn't as talkative as the one with the camera; it's like she couldn't even hear me though she was right there in the room with me. And the doctors, what's up with them speaking to me as if I had lost my mind?I felt a sudden fear in my chest as I looked around the room for the millionth time. No one talks to me here, I can

"Can I please go home now? I don't like it here.""Soon, dear, you're coming along rather nicely." What does that even mean? I've given up on trying to understand her and the way she speaks. The other one had disappeared somewhere, and I hadn't seen her in days, leaving me to deal with nurse goober and her robotic self. At least I felt much calmer these last couple of days than when I first came here.They hadn't eased up on the restraints, but I've come to accept that it was for my own good and stopped fighting. Not that it did me any good to argue; no one ever seems to listen. "I can't wait to get out of here and take care of the little bitch who did this to me." Wait a minute; I hadn't meant to say that out loud. That's been happening a lot lately. I keep saying things as soon as they pop into my head, as if I have no control over my tongue.I watched for her reaction out the side of my eye, but all she did was smile. "You think a child did this to you? But why would someone do such