chuckle.
Class begins, but I can’t focus, forcing Arsen to carry us today.
All I can think about is Ransom and what this means.
Stepping inside the tall white building, we’re greeted by a middle-aged woman who must recognize Ransom.
Her eyes soften, and she sets a small clipboard down in front of us.
Ransom grabs a pen and the woman looks to me.
“Hi, can I help you?” She smiles welcomingly.
I stiffen and Ransom's eyes snap up.
“She’s with me,” he tells her.
The woman’s grin seems to double in size. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t realize. Sienna will be so happy to have her here.”
Sienna.
My lips curve.
That’s her name.
“In the garden, Mr. Rossi?”
Ransom nods, setting the pen down, and I glance at the form. It’s labeled Rossi 242, her room number maybe, and the sheet is nearly full of visitor sign-ins, each one the exact same. His.
His hand slips into mine and he walks us around the entryway and out through the large double door that leads to a mini pond and outdoor recreation-like area.
There’re a few tables and benches scattered around, a few other patients visiting with family members or friends, a small snack hut and a wall of board games that have been put to use for some time now, their boxes are faded, torn at each edge.
“He never comes to see her.” He frowns, grabbing my free hand and lacing it into his other one. He looks to me. “You saw the form.”
I shrug a shoulder, wrapping my hand around his bicep.
“He’s a dick, can only be bothered when they make him, when he has to sign orders and shit he can’t do by email, and even then, he complains about missing work. I can’t wait to get her out of here,” he admits a moment later.
“What do you mean?”
We lower onto one of the benches, and he stares at the door we stepped out of. “He put her in this place because he doesn’t want to take care of her. She was in the hospital for over a month after the accident, and then, bam. Straight here, like she hadn’t already lost enough.”
“Do you think she’s unhappy here?” I ask.
He shrugs. “She says she’s fine and I think they’re good to her, but still, they’re not her family. They’re strangers and she’s young. I’m sure she gets scared sometimes, but she hasn’t said out loud and she wouldn’t. She doesn’t like to worry me,” he scoffs, his jaw clenching and he flies off the bench, a long exhale escaping him. “I know she needs real care but for the price he pays to keep her here, we could have someone at home for her. It’s a fucking miracle he’s paying for this place, even if it is her money to begin with.”
His eyes fall to the ground, his jaw clenched angrily. “I’ve watched him step into her room here, listen to her nurse, sign whatever got him here, and just... walk out, like she can’t see or hear or feel. Like she can’t fucking speak.” His muscles clench and release over and over. “Sometimes I wish she would yell at him, but I get why she doesn’t. She knows he wouldn’t care; he makes that clear to her when he doesn’t even look her way.”
“He’s an asshole,” I force out.
Ransom chuckles, but it’s heavy. “Yeah, he is.” His eyes find mine, and slowly roam along my face as he slides closer, lifting my chin slightly.
“He’d hate you,” he says quietly, and my shoulders stretch. “He’d hate you because I don’t.”
Something settles over me and a sense of self-preservation knocks at the back of my mind, but I don’t answer.
Even if I did, it would be a Ransom shaped silhouette standing on the other side of it.
He was right before, a piece of him has found its way into every part of me. Even the ugly parts I hide.
I don’t know how or when it happened, and I can’t claim to care.
I like who I am with him.
Without him, I’m not sure I exist.
Ransom’s eyes soften as he stares at me, but then they lift over my shoulder and his entire being transforms.
The anger is gone, the heartache no longer lingering.
He smiles same as I witnessed that day I saw him in the park with her.
I’m almost nervous to look but then the foot of her chair comes into view and slowly I turn, watching as Ransom leans in to hug her, gently kissing her cheek.
She is young, maybe fifteen, and beautiful. Her