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“Thank you,” I whisper to him.
“It’s not a problem, Paisley. All you have to do is ask, and we will get it for you, okay? We don’t want you straining yourself,” Kade tells me.
I almost tear up at his words. I’m not sure if what I’m feeling for all these guys can be called love, but I know I deeply care for them.
Knock, knock,I hear coming from the hospital door, and I start getting anxious.
What if it’s my mother and she is going to take me back home before I can talk to CPS?
My throat starts to close up, and it’s getting harder and harder to breathe. I try to take shallow breaths so the guys can’t tell that I’m having a freak-out over here. Not only is my throat closing up, but the hair on my arms is standing tall, my body is starting to burn up, and my heart is now pounding faster than it was before.
“Hello, I’m Mrs. Kayla Fitzgerald. I work for Liberty County Child Protective Services. Is this Paisley Matthews’s room?” comes a female voice near the door.
I instantly start to calm down. It’s like cold water was poured over me to quell my nerves.
“Yes, this is her room. Why are you here, Mrs. Fitzgerald?” asks Atlas.
“That is none of your concern, Atlas. Unless you are family, I’m not allowed to divulge information to you. You should know how this works. You were under my caseload for several years,” says the lady that I presume is Mrs. Fitzgerald. “Hi. Paisley, right? I need to talk to you about some things. Is that okay?”
“Do you sign? My voice hurts a lot right now, and signing is a lot easier for me,” I sign to her.
“Yes, you can sign. It might take me a bit, as I don’t sign as well as this crew here,” she says, pointing to the boys.
“Do the boys have to leave the room? I would feel more comfortable if they were in the room with me,”I sign.
“Unfortunately, yes, they do have to leave the room. Some of the questions I have to ask are very personal, and it’s best if we are alone.”
I look over at the guys.
“Is she who she says she is? Can I trust her?” I sign to Luca.
Signing back, Luca replies,“Yes, Paisley. She placed all four of us with Pete and Betty and has been wonderful to us over the years. She still calls Betty to check up on us, even though we aged out of the system a couple months ago.”
I nod at Mrs. Fitzgerald.
“We will be right out in the waiting room if you need us, okay, Paisley Girl?” I hear Kade say over his shoulder as he leaves.
“Okay, Miss Matthews. I’m just going to ask you some questions and I just need you to be as honest as possible and as thorough with your answers as you can be.”
I nod again.
“You came to the hospital because you were unconscious at school. Do you remember what happened?”
“No. I just remember leaving ASL to go to the bathroom. Next thing I know, I’m here,”I sign to the lady.
“The reason I was called was because you came in with several healed fractures, plus bruises all over your body. Could you tell me a bit about how you got your most recent bruises and your broken arm?”
I sigh, trying not to think about that day. I really don’t want to remember it. I tend to put those days in the past and think of the future.
“Mother had gone out of town the night before, so I made tacos. I left the dishes in the sink, and I forgot to clean up after myself. I woke up the next morning and she was waiting for me in the kitchen. She broke my arm with a frying pan. The rest of the bruises are from her hitting and beating on me,”I sign to her.
“And is this the first time she has done this?”
“No, this is not the first time. She has done this type of stuff more than half my life,”I sign back.
I gulp and shiver, thinking about what I’m going to have to tell her. I don’t want to tell them this part, but it’s integral to why she does the things she does.
“When I was eight years old, my best friend’s dad sexually assaulted me. I told my mother, and she slapped me, saying how dare I accuse someone of doing that. She said I needed to stop being an attention whore. I even told one of my schoolteachers. They called the cops for me. I went in and answered questions, but in the end, nothing happened, and as an eight-year-old, I became a pariah,”I sign, embarrassed and ashamed.
