Total pages in book: 235
Estimated words: 224334 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1122(@200wpm)___ 897(@250wpm)___ 748(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 224334 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1122(@200wpm)___ 897(@250wpm)___ 748(@300wpm)
“What?” I ask, sounding impatient. What the hell has that got to do with anything? “What are you trying to say?”
“We proceeded with a further test.” He eyes me with caution. “Your symptoms prompted it.”
“Symptoms?” Ava whispers. “What symptoms?”
I do not like the way he keeps looking at me. Like he’s bracing himself for a blowback. “We found clear evidence of Rohypnol in your urine.”
I feel like someone just stabbed me in the heart, twisted the knife, and pulled it beating from my chest. “What?” I stand abruptly, my chair flying back, my hands starting to shake. Rohypnol? “As in date rape?” I ask, now not bothering to even try and control the volume of my voice.
The doctor confirms I heard right, his regret obvious.
“Jesus fucking Christ,” I look to the heavens for help. No help. They don’t see me. I walk on shaky legs across the room and hold whatever I can find to keep me up, breathing heavily, head dropped.
“Ava,” the doctor goes on, leaving me to try and shake this unshakable panic. Date rape. Someone wanted to take advantage of her? Violate her? Hurt her? Who? “I would advise you notify the police. You need to tell them everything you remember. Sir, can you confirm whether she was alone at any point?”
I think he’s talking to me now, but I can’t speak. All I can do is walk my way through the horrid moments when I arrived at the bar and watched her collapse. What would have happened if I hadn’t been there? I shudder, losing my breath.
“We need to do an examination to determine whether you were raped.”
My blood feels like ice. “She wasn’t alone,” I say quietly, seeing her in the bar, her eyes on me, rolling, her body crumpling. “I watched her hit the deck. I was there in a split second.” Catching her. Saving her. From what?
Every fear, every worry, every minute of stress I’ve ever felt since meeting Ava has been validated, and I dare anyone to tell me I’m neurotic now. I fucking dare them. I look at Ava. She looks in a state of shock, whereas I’m so fucking angry, my body doesn’t know what to do. My mouth doesn’t know what to say.
“And you are sure of this?” the doctor asks.
“Yes.” Only sure of what I saw when I got there. But she was conscious. Any sexual predator would wait until she’s not. Until the drug had worked. The doctor pushes, insisting on the examination. “I’ve checked every square inch of her.” I can hardly breathe. My heart hurts. “There isn’t a mark on her.” I go to the door and fling it open, calling Kate before I see her on a chair up the corridor. I meet her in the middle. “Before I arrived,” I say, as Sam joins us. “Was Ava ever alone? Even for just a minute.”
“What? Why are—”
“Just answer the question, Kate. Was she alone?”
Kate’s face bunches, trying to remember, obviously sensing my urgency. “Um, I can’t—” She curses. “I went for a smoke but she was with Tom.”
“Tom?”
“Yes, Tom.”
“I didn’t see Tom in the bar.”
“He left.”
“When?”
She’s getting frustrated by my quick-fire, endless questions. “I don’t know, Jesse. What’s going on?”
Sam moves in and puts an arm around Kate protectively, looking at me in question. Keep it together, keep it together.
I return to the bed. “Baby,” I breathe, my temperature spiking. “Kate said she went for a cigarette, but Tom was with you. Can you remember that?’
She nods. “Yes.” But then frowns. “But Tom went to the toilet while Kate was having a cigarette.”
She was on her own. Fuck me, a sitting duck, just waiting to be . . . what? “Okay.” Breathe. “Do you remember what happened during the time you were on your own?”
“Yes. Why?”
“Because, Ava, I don’t want anyone poking you about unless they really need to, so please, think hard. Before I turned up, were you okay? Do you remember everything?”
“Yes,” she answers, getting worked up. “I do.”
“Ava, I would be happier if you would consent to the examination.”
Jesus Christ, won’t he listen? Does he think I would obstruct him if I knew she could have been—
My stomach turns.
“No,” Ava says, resolute, more worked up, motioning down her body. “I know nothing happened. I have no bruises, no cuts.”
“If you are one hundred percent sure, Ava,” the doctor relents. “I can’t force you.”
“Damn right you can’t fucking force her.” Hasn’t she been through enough without being poked and prodded at?
“Nothing happened.” She clenches at my hand, holding me tightly, as if she’s worried I might let them take her away from me. No. Never. “I remember everything until Jesse arrived.” Her eyes find mine, full of tears and distress. It’s hit her. How this could have been. “I remember everything,” she says, whimpering, gripping me harder.