Page 40 of Brax

“Nothing has changed, honey,” said Riley. “We can’t expect that it will. We’ve taken her to the pond twice while she was unconscious, and it’s done absolutely nothing. She’s too far gone.”

“What can we do?” asked Victoria.

“We can make her comfortable, and we will. Mama Irene and Claudette are making one of the cottages ready for her now. We have a wheelchair for her to make it more accessible, and the medical team will be taking turns to help her with day-to-day things,” said Gabi.

“I’ve never seen anyone that looks like that,” said Stephanie.

“It’s pretty horrible. Whatever he did to her is creating this irreversible damage to her internal organs. We’ve all seen calcification of the heart, arteries, liver, and other parts of the body. But this is happening on a grand scale,” said Suzette.

“We found a photo of her from ten years ago. Nothing that you see now was visible then. She may have known it was happening, but it moved fast,” said Gabi.

“I feel horrible,” said Stephanie. “I was hoping that I could help her.”

“You can,” said Doc. “You can help her by being a friend. A true friend. I doubt very seriously if that poor woman has ever had a friend stand beside her.”

“I’ll see if I can help get the cottage ready.” She kissed Brax, turned with Victoria, Marilisa, Katelyn, and Chelsea, and walked away. He waited until they were out of earshot.

“Level with us,” he said, standing with the other men.

“She’s got maybe a few days. That’s all,” said Doc.

“Damn,” muttered Mav.

“Listen, no one else needs to know this, but the x-rays and scans showed just how brutal he was with her body. When he put her under to take what he wanted, he must have put her under for days or weeks until she healed. She has at least a dozen scars from surgery.”

“He performed surgery on her?”

“He opened her up and took pieces of her,” said Wilson, standing beside his friend. “Pieces of her femur, hip, ribs. That doesn’t even include the pieces of her internal organs that he stole. Part of the reason she can’t heal is because she’s not whole. He stole that from her.”

“Fuck,” muttered Brax.

“Boys? Come with me,” said Matthew.

“Where are we going?” asked Saint.

“We’re going to give a woman her final wish.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

“I-I don’t understand,” said Ines.

The skin from her forehead was pushing down on her eyelids, making it difficult for her to see. She tilted her head back, looking at the pretty little cottage with the wheelchair ramp.

“It’s your home,” said Stephanie.

“My h-home? Why? I tried to hurt you,” she said.

“You tried to help yourself,” said Stephanie. “I have to believe that you wouldn’t have harmed me.”

“I didn’t want to. I truly didn’t want to,” she whispered.

“Well, we’re going to make you as comfortable as possible,” said Lena. “We’ve got the bed nice and low for you. The chairs are lower. You’ve got access to thousands of movies, and someone will be here with you every day and every night.”

“Why? I’m not going to get better. You all know that. I’m dying. I know that,” she said. Wilson kneeled beside her, holding her disfigured hand.

“Because no one should die alone, Ines. No one.”

“I-I’m so confused.”

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