Page 64 of Tarnished Embers

“But if you ever hurt yourself like that again, I will spank you so hard, Sugar, you’ll not be able to sit down for months.” I blink at his harsh tone, then my mouth tilts up into a small smile.

“Not a deterrent, Prince,” I say, and heat flares in his emerald eyes, making them shine for a different reason. “Now, can you help me to the bathroom? I need a wee.”

He chuckles, and the sound is like walking outside in the sunshine after the harshest winter.

“Anything for you, my love.”

After Prince helps me to the bathroom and refuses to leave even when I sit down on the toilet—domineering bastard—I tell him he can make himself useful by helping me in the shower. I need to wash the last few days from my skin, and even though it looks like someone has taken the worst of the blood off, I still feel unclean.

I feel so much better once I’m dried and in a new hospital gown, although the way Prince’s jaw clenched as he catalogued every bruise with fire in his eyes made it difficult to live in the denial my mind wants to at the moment. I know that I’ll need to face what happened head-on at some point, just not right now.

Prince has just finished helping me back into bed when the door opens and a female doctor walks in, Odette at her side. The tension in the room ratchets until I can barely breathe, or that could be because of seeing her for the first time since my attack, an attack she not only orchestrated but profited from.

“Get the fuck out,” Prince growls, matching sounds of displeasure coming from the other boys as Odette stands there wide-eyed.

“I just want to check—”

“I don’t want her in here,” I tell the doctor, tearing my gaze away from Odette and pretending like she doesn’t exist. “That’s my right as the patient, isn’t it?”

“Of course, Ember,” the doctor agrees, turning to Odette. “Can you wait outside please, Mrs Everly?”

Odette’s left eye twitches, but that’s the only sign that she’s pissed. “I’ll be just outside.”

We all watch as she leaves, and a small fissure of satisfaction lifts my lips in a smile at the power I just had over her.Take that, bitch.

“Now, how are you feeling, Ember?” the doctor asks, taking my notes from the bottom of the bed and looking over them.

“Still quite sore, especially…” I trail off, and a deep sigh leaves her lips as she pats my leg in comfort.

“I think all being well, you should be able to go home in the next day or two after talking to one of our councillors about what happened with a referral for some counselling sessions that I strongly advise you to take.” Her tone is gentle, yet firm, and I nod, knowing that actually speaking to someone about what happened might be the best road to recovery. “Normally, we’d advise a stay in one of our mental health support units, but given the…circumstances, I think we can let you home for your recovery. I’ll get the nurse to bring you some medication for the pain.”

With a last squeeze of my leg, she leaves, and Odette peers in before the door closes again.

“Well, at least she didn’t outright deny what happened like that other asshole,” Oct states with a huff, and my forehead wrinkles.

“What do you mean?” I ask him, an uneasiness crawling along my spine.

Prince heaves a sigh before taking my hand. “When you first woke up, you were out of it and the doctor, a male doctor, came in here to check on you,” he tells me, his hand holding mine, his thumb tracing circles across my skin. Nausea tingles in the corners of my mouth, the idea of an unknown man in here whilst I was so vulnerable making my breaths pant. The only reason for me not having a full-blown panic attack right now is because I know the guys haven’t left me alone, that they were here to keep me safe. “We asked about the cops and when they were going to get here.”

“Okay,” I say, unsure where he’s going with this but knowing that it won’t be good by the way his shoulders cave in a little. A chill settles over me, my stomach quivering as I wait to hear what he says next.

“He told us there was no need for the law to get involved because it was an attempted suicide and nothing else.” His green eyes bore into mine, his brows deeply furrowed as he waits for me to absorb the information.

“What?” My skin prickles as a coldness hits my centre. How can they deny what happened to me? It’s written all over my body in shades of purple and red, in the pain that throbs from the most intimate of places.

“He denied they had raped you, Cinders,” Cas says, coming up to my other side and taking my frozen hand in his warm one, pressing it to his lips.

“How?” I question, taking a deep breath as the murky memories try to resurface. “I can feel the stitches in my pussy, Cas. How can they say nothing happened?”

His jaw tightens, and he doesn’t need to answer for me to know the truth.

Odette.

She somehow made it so that no record of what happened exists. My skin flushes hot, rage chasing the cold away as my blood flows to my extremities. That. Fucking. Bitch.

“That’s not all, Sugar,” Prince adds quietly, and I swing my gaze back to him. He looks tortured, his jaw a solid line. “She lied about your father’s Will.”

“The fuck?” I hear Kit exclaim, but I can’t look away from Prince as he goes on, my heart racing.

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