Page 34 of Oathbreaker

I will not break. I will not crack.

Control. Gather control.

I vow to fight against total collapse. It’s up to me to save us all.

EIGHT

WINTER

Ifloat above myself.

I can see the myriad of tubes streaming from my body and the thin threads of the stitches that pull my flesh back together again. The nurses take samples from my body—blood, urine—a vaginal exam.

I watch as the doctors shake their heads.

The team of nurses clean me from head to toe. They take the disposable washcloths from the warmer and scrub my body with them. They place a cap on my hair to shampoo it. A younger Black nurse comes in and conditions my curls. She detangles each knotted lock before braiding it down into two thick plaits.

I see it all from above myself.

The doctor comes in, and Hunter is there. I hear Hunter say that he is my husband. The doctor’s face is grim as he details the extent of my injuries. He tells Hunter about all of it. The medicines they will give me, the tests they will run.

How they will do their best to make sure my body goes back to normal after the assault.

Normal. What does it mean to be normal?

Hunter stands stone-faced as he talks with each medical professional—until he is alone with me in the room. Then, limb by limb, he breaks.

I am not within my body, although I breathe. My heart beats. Over and over. I continue to exist.

Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

Goes the machines.

Then. He touches my hand.

Looking at Hunter is painful, so I avoid his gaze. But his hand on mine...I hold on to it like a lifeline.

It’s the only thing keeping me tethered to this realm and not floating to the next.

“Winter,” he says. He brings my hand to his lips and then to his cheek.

Sometime later, I say, “What happened to you?” My voice is still wrecked. It hurts to talk.

But then again, everything hurts.

“I was in a car accident. It was the night you disappeared.”

“Tell me what happened,” I say.

“Winter...” He closes his eyes, rocking with my hand pressed to his cheek.

“Tell me,” I say with more energy. “Please,” I whisper.

“Leo and I were leaving the country club. I went to tell my father to fuck off, and Blair was there. I was coming to you.” He brings my hand back to his lips, pressing a long kiss to the backside of it.

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