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“I don’t know. But he is pushing for the surgery.”
For the last three days, he’d texted each morning and asked me if she’d given it any thought. He could do it the morning after my show. Cat wouldn’t answer. She changed the subject every time I brought it up.
I hadn’t told her I’d booked the appointment, just in case she had a change of heart, pun intended.
Are you ever going to tell her about your history?
Rhylie didn’t know every detail, just that I had a thing for Cat, that it was me who had led her into hell, and that I’d seen her a few times after that.
“She knows we knew each other. She doesn’t know what brought us together or what I did to push us apart.” I paused momentarily, genuinely curious about the answer to my next question. “Do you think I should tell her?”
Rhylie didn’t put her pen to paper for some time, focusing on the screen ahead.
Not if it puts her life at risk. Not if you’re making her happy now and your intentions are genuine. I don’t want her hurt, Remi, not if her life depends on remaining stress-free. And in truth, I wish I could forget everything.
“I love her.” Rhylie was the first person I’d admitted the depth of my feelings to in years, aside from Cat, the day that I found her when she was too hyped up with emotions to take in the weight of those words.
I leaned over myself on the uncomfortable plastic seat.
Rhylie’s eye examined me, searching my posture for lies, but she wouldn’t find any. If anything, she was the only person I was always honest with.
“And I care about you. I don’t want to keep you apart. She knows she has a sister, but she doesn’t know it’s the woman I visit every day.” I pulled my chair closer to the bed, resting my elbows on the mattress and my jaw on my fists. “Would you like to see her?”
I don’t want her to see me like this. It won’t do her any favors, either, if her heart is having issues. I don’t want to stress her.
Another message followed.
But I might write her a letter soon if you’ll give it to her for me?
“Of course.”
And I’d like a picture of her for my room. You can take it on your phone and print it, or if you’re feeling extra generous, she likes cameras. I think it’ll make her smile if you get her one, assuming she remembers she still likes them.
“She’s already got one. I’ll snap a picture of her today on our outing.”
“Thank you,” Rhylie mouthed before turning to watch the movie.
I stayed with her until the end, and I enjoyed it, the movie and the little notes she handed me throughout, mostly about how she’d find a way to hurt me if I did anything to bring her sister pain again. She wouldn’t have to worry about that. Cat had pushed her way to the top of my priorities, and keeping her safe was paramount to me.
The occasional note about Mercer Novaletti made its way into my lap, too, about how he was too pretty to be a doctor. Rhylie liked him, but she liked his girlfriend, too, who was on her way in to keep her company as I was on my way out.
I sat in my truck with the engine running, my eyes pointed upward on the window to Rhylie’s room, and I thought back to meeting her a little over a month ago.
I should ignore them—her piercing cries that abuse my eardrums. I should turn down my hearing aid and try to block them out.
I’d been told to do that. By so many fucking people. By monsters and the devil. By a man who wanted to stop all of this.
I was told to sacrifice one to save many.
It was all part of us not being heroes, part of being monsters, who occasionally did good things.
I drowned the cries out.
I stood at a silver tray and finished lining up pieces of my tattoo machine, which had practically been dissected for cleaning. The autoclave was open at my side, giving off heat in this chilly room. It helped minimize how much fog came out of my mouth with each breath.
Another scream distracted me from collecting the grip from the autoclave.
I couldn’t ignore it again. The pain, the pleas for death, the absolute torture some poor woman was going through.
