Twisted (Torn Series) Page 0,48

The doctor glanced down at the chart in his hand before smiling at me.

“Evening Miss Richards, I’m Dr. Browing. How are you feeling?”

“I’m alright, just a little sore.”

He nodded. “Yes, I bet. You took quite the beating, but the good news is that there isn’t any permanent damage. We’ve tended to the cuts on your face and taped your ribs. I want you to stay one more night just for observation, but if everything stays the same you will be released tomorrow morning.”

I smiled. “That sounds great, thank you.”

“Not a problem, I’m going to prescribe you something for the pain to help with your ribs and overall soreness. If you need more, just contact me and I can write another prescription for you.”

He waved as he left and the two officers stepped forward. Neither one of them looked happy as they stared down at my bruised and battered body.

The younger of the two stepped forward and shook my hand. “Hello Chloe, I’m Officer Daniels and this is Officer Bradley. If you’re feeling up to it, we have a couple of questions for you about last night.”

“Sure, go ahead.” I answered.

He pulled out a small notebook and flipped it open. “Alright, we have the end of the story, but can you tell us what happened from the beginning?”

I nodded. “Sure, I decided to go for a swim. When I got out I started to walk over to get my phone, but my mother came up behind me and grabbed me around my neck. She threw me to the ground and started kicking me, and then she grabbed my hair and started hitting my head against the concrete.”

I looked at Jordan as I spoke and I saw him tensing up more and more with every word I said. I immediately felt guilty for telling the officers all of this with him in the room.

The officer noticed me watching Jordan. “Would you rather we did this without anyone in the room?”

I nodded and Jordan shook his head. “No Chloe, I want to hear it too.”

The officer raised an eyebrow, but said nothing.

“I don’t want to upset you Jordan.”

“I’m already upset, nothing you say will make it worse.”

I sighed before turning my attention back to the officer. “It’s fine. Where was I? Oh yeah, after that she pulled me over to the pool and held my face right above the water. She said something like,“Maybe next time you’ll think about crossing me, if there is a next time.” and then she shoved me under the water.”

My throat closed off as I thought about how much venom she had put into those words.

“And then what happened?” The officer asked.

“I don’t really know for sure. I think Jordan pulled her off of me and then pulled me out of the water. Danny and Allison came running out right after that and then Allison called you guys.”

He nodded as he continued to scribble in his notebook. “Got it, but just one question. What was she talking about when she said you had crossed her?”

Danny spoke up from the corner of the room. “My mother just passed away and left Chloe a substantial amount of money. My aunt thought she would also be getting some of that money as well, but she was sadly mistaken. She is severely addicted to drugs and my mother refused to leave her anything unless she sought treatment. Andrea has it in her head that Chloe is to blame for my mother’s decision, but that’s not the case. My aunt has abused Chloe for years.”

The officer looked at my sympathetically. “Is that true?”

A simple yes was all I could manage to get out.

“Alright then, we’ve got everything we need here. We are already searching for her, but so far she’s disappeared without a trace. As soon as we know something we’ll be in touch, but in the meantime if you can think of anything else just give me a call.” He handed me his card and I smiled.

“I will, thank you.”

After the officers left, Audrey brought in a tray with some soup and jello. “Here you go honey. If you need anything else, just push the call button and I’ll be right in.”

The soup felt like nails as it slid down my tender throat, but I forced myself to finish it. I didn’t want to give them any reason to keep me here longer than necessary. Jordan helped by feeding it to me and I couldn’t help but giggle.

He cocked an eyebrow, “What?”

“Nothing,