Page 107 of Goose

“That’s good... but I’m still not sure what happened.”

Doctor Tickner stops and looks at Goose and then back to me. He removes some sticky pads on my chest without saying a word.

“You had a lot of internal bleeding, which I had a very hard time stopping. Head injury, burns all over that needed to be treated, not to mention the broken bones.”

I growl and rip my arm away from him. “But where did they come from? How the fuck did I get here?”

Doctor Tickner stands and looks at Goose. “It’s common with head injuries like yours that you won’t remember what happened. But I think that’s something you two will need to discuss...”

With that, he walks out the door without saying another word. I’m getting more and more frustrated by the minute with not knowing what has happened to me.

I turn to Goose and scowl. “Tell me what’s going on right now. I don’t want to be treated like a child.”

He sighs and takes my hand back in his. I can tell he’s struggling with what to say. Finally, he edges out of his chair and onto the bed with me, wrapping his arms around me.

“What’s the last thing you remember?”

I shrug and play with the edge of the bedsheet.

“Ellie Jo’s bakery. After that, everything kind of goes blank.”

Goose gently twirls a strand of my hair around his finger and kisses the top of my head. I lay my head on his chest and as he takes a deep breath.

“Ellie Jo... well, she kidnapped you and tortured you. Then did the same to me. We tried to escape her house, and it blew up. You hit your head hard and were unconscious.”

“Where’s Ellie Jo?”

Goose turns my face toward him. “Dead.”

“How?”

He just shakes his head and pulls the blankets up, then pulls me in closer to him.

“Let’s not talk about that right now. Get some rest, baby. I’m not going anywhere. I’ll be here when you wake up.”

Instead of fighting, I cuddle up to Goose and close my eyes. I’m in a lot of pain and know I need to rest.

Slowly, I close my eyes as the pain medicine takes me away to sleep.

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“YOU STUPID PIECE OFshit! I expect this house to be clean by the time I get home from work!”

“Daddy! I had homework to do, and you got home early!”

He slapped me across the face as he grabbed a beer from the fridge. He was already drunk, but that didn’t stop him from drinking until he blacked out.

“You’re just like your fucking mother. Women have no place in school. Your job is to clean and take care of the men. You got that?”

I nodded as I worked on scrubbing the dishes. My face stung, but I knew better than to touch it and show him any emotion.

He drank all night, then beat me more when the dishes weren’t up to his standards. I cried in bed as I heard him with the hooker in his bedroom next to me.

I would have to cover my bruises in the morning so Sawyer and the teachers wouldn’t ask questions...

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MY FATHER SLAMMED MYbedroom door open. I jumped and looked at the clock.

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