Page 67 of Sweet Misery

RENZO

Nothing.

Nearly three weeks of nothing from her.

She simply laid in her bed, not moving. Not speaking. Not eating on her own. We tended to her wounds, but couldn’t get anything out of her. We had to feed her, but she often just let it fall out of her mouth. We had to force water into her. It was like she’d just given up on living.

We’d had this happen before and we’d simply killed that bitch.

Misery was different. We were doing all we could to save her.

Roman was a fucking mess. I’d wake to hear him throwing up. He’d spent most of his days high or drunk off his ass. He wasn’t talking to anyone either. When sent out to work, he’d kill without fanfare before returning home to his room.

He wasn’t even speaking to me. We’d never gone five minutes without talking to one another.

“Hey,” I murmured as I raked my fingers gently through Misery’s hair that evening. “I brought you some soup.”

Like always, she simply stared past me, tears in her eyes.

“Misery?” I tried again. “I need you to eat. You’re wasting away on us.”

Again, nothing.

I placed the bowl of soup on the table next to her bed. Carefully, I sat her up. In the beginning, she’d fight against any touch. Now, she just let us position her however we wanted.

I picked her bowl up and scooped some warm soup onto the spoon and offered it to her. She didn’t open her mouth for me.

“Please?” I called out softly. “You have to eat. You’ll die.” My voice cracked at those words. “I-I don’t want you to go.”

I placed the bowl back on the bedside table and leaned forward to lick away a tear. I placed a gentle kiss on her cheek where the tear had been.

“Please?” I begged, tugging her toward me. “Please stay. What do you want me to do? I’ll do it. We all will. Roman didn’t mean what he did. Our father would have made things so much worse if Roe hadn’t done that.” We’d all explained it to her a hundred times, but she never seemed to care.

I held her tightly. “My Sweet Misery, please. Tell me what you need from me to make this better?”

Nothing.

Silence.

I exhaled a shaky breath.

“We’re working out a plan to kill him. Our father. We want him dead just as much as you do. Once he’s gone, it’ll be better. I swear it will.”

I sighed and got to my feet, scooping her up with me.

She’d lost so much weight. I hated that.

Gently, I carried her from her room to mine and placed her in bed. I undressed and crawled in beside her. We’d changed her t-shirt. As much as we wanted to give her something else to wear, we knew better. If our father showed up again unannounced and saw her being cared for, he’d flip his shit.

“I’m sorry.” I apologized again for what had to be the millionth time.

She let out a soft sigh and reached for my hand. My heart pounded at the contact. It was the first she’d done to any of us.

“I know you’re sorry,” she murmured. “I just… I thought maybe I’d be safe now. The realization that I’m just as close to death scared me. I’m scared, Ren.”

“Fuck, baby. I know. We’re working on a plan to kill his ass. I promise we are. He’s so fucking guarded though. I don’t know how we’re going to do it short of just launching a rocket into his house.”

She nodded and sniffled.

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