Lahat ng Kabanata ng Solid Heart (Unseen Enemy 7): Kabanata 21 - Kabanata 30

Without a word, she pulled away, and dashed over to Alexandra’s bed. That was when Mark saw a single brown eye staring over at them, bewildered and teary.“Oh, my God,” he said. “Alexandra…”Francine was holding the other woman’s hand carefully. “Alexandra? Can you hear me?”Alexandra blinked slowly.“I’ll get the doctor,” Mark said, already halfway to the door. “Gimme two minutes to track him down.”Francine nodded, but didn’t move her eyes from Alexandra’s face. It was a mass of bruises and swelling, her body was bandaged and broken. Francine couldn’t even imagine what Alexandra was thinking or feeling now, but she was sure that the overwhelming emotion had to be terror, closely followed by confusion. Oh, and pain, of course. Lots and lots of that.“Alexandra?” Francine said softly. “Ma douce?”“Uhhhh…” Alexandra groaned, trying to sit up. “What…”“Shhhh,” Francine said, trying to soothe her. “Don’t move, OK? Wait ’til the doctor gets here and looks you over. Right now, you just sta

“But you told me that things were escalating,” Alexandra said. “You told me that over and over again in our sessions, and I just kept telling you that it wasn’t as bad as you were making it out to be. I kept waiting for things to change… to get better.” She dropped her gaze to the bed. “I – I should have accepted your help. I should have gone to that safe house that you told me about. I should have listened to you. If I had, I wouldn’t be here now. This – it’s all my fault.”Francine opened her mouth to protest, but Mark spoke first.“Hey, now,” he said. “None of that, hon. You hear me? This is not your fault.”“But –”“No ‘buts’,” he said firmly. “I’m a man, and I’m a big man, right? I’ve been trained to hurt people with my hands, my body – I’ve been trained to kill, Alexandra. I know just how strong I am, and I’m fully aware that I have to take care with women when I put my hands on them, even when I’m being gentle and helpful. It’s not sexist, and it’s not bullshit… it’s fact, it’s

The next dayFrancine stared at herself in the hospital bathroom mirror, hoping that she looked OK. Two nights spent sleeping in a chair had definitely not done wonders for her appearance. She examined the purple circles under her blue eyes, eyed her wrecked nails, took in her wrinkled clothes. No, she was most certainly not a vision, and though she’d managed to beg a shower from a kind nurse and find basic toiletries in the gift shop downstairs, she didn’t look anything like her best. She sighed and thought that at least she had clean teeth, and shampooed hair, and was wearing deodorant. Small mercies, bien sûr.She went back to Alexandra’s room, smiled at her as she sat semi-propped-up in bed. She was looking better already, and Francine knew that it was largely because of peace of mind. After all, for the first time in three years, Alexandra could close her eyes and not worry about being beaten awake, or raped in her sleep, or hit hard enough to knock her unconscious for hours at

She went quiet for a few seconds, and he just waited. Finally, she sighed.“After. After was bad.” She traced a pattern on the island with her fingertip. “The court case, the testifying, the back-and-forth, and the legal arguments. Everything came down to me, in the end, to my testimony.”“Why you?” Mark was baffled. “Why not your client? His wife?”“Because her lawyer didn’t want her up on the stand.”“How come?”“Because her husband was a lawyer, and he was representing himself,” Francine said. “My client could barely tolerate being in the same room as the man, and the thought that he’d be right there, in her face, questioning her about the abuse that he’d inflicted on her?” She shook her head. “No. No, she wasn’t anywhere near strong enough for that. So I was the key witness for the prosecution – and he made it his obsession and personal mission to take me down. Discredit me, attack me, scare me. And he did one hell of a job of it, I can tell you.”Mark clenched his hands. “He abus

Denver was beautiful, he supposed. The looming Rockies with their snow-capped peaks; the huge, open sky glittering with millions of stars; the fresh, crisp mountain air.He had no fucking interest in any of it. He was here for one reason, and one reason only.He followed the GPS directions, parked a few buildings down from the clinic where she worked. Seeing as it was now going on midnight, she wouldn’t be there, of course. But she would be there, he knew. Soon. Hopefully first thing in the morning.He grabbed his suitcase from the trunk of the car that he’d stolen back in Québec, locked it up, crossed the street. The hotel that he’d booked was way below his usual standards, to be sure, but a damn sight better than a prison cell. It was also right across from the mental health clinic. He’d specifically requested a room facing the street, and the woman on the phone had assured him that was no problem to accommodate. It seemed that most guests asked for rooms in the back, away from the