Weakness Gets You Killed

Part 5

Gia woke up to the sound of the heart monitor beeping.

"Again?" She asked groggily, rubbing her throbbing head. "This happens, like, once a month," she mumbled.

"James! She's awake!" Mary said to her husband, shaking him awake.

"Wha's goin' on?" James muttered tiredly.

"She's awake!" James bolted up in his seat.

"Really?"

"Yeah, really, right here, guys," Gia announced sarcastically, raising her arm. The effort, however, made her grimace.

"Don't strain yourself," Mary scolded.

"Oops," Gia said, smiling sheepishly. Then, her phone rang. She reached out to her bedside table to answer, but Mary beat her to it.

"Sorry, but she- wait, what?!" Mary exploded. "I think you'd better take this," Mary said, handing Gia the phone.

"Thanks," Gia said sarcastically, rolling her eyes. "Yeah, hey, Mikey- wait, what!" 

"That's what I said," Mary mumbled.

"No, no, no! This can't be- but how did they- they what?!" The two gangsters argued back and forth, with both interrupting each other from time to time. Suddenly, Gia hung up and shrieked in frustration. "The son of a bitch broke my roof!" She exclaimed.

"What?" James asked, staring weirdly.

"This- this... this asshole crashed through my roof!" She buried her face in her hands.

"What do you mean?" Mary asked calmly.

"James, I need to go to Mexico," Gia stated, looking at the shocked man before her.

"M- Mexico?" He choked. "Why?"

Gia sighed before beginning her story. "When I was seven, I lived on the streets. I learned how to protect myself, how to provide for myself. I was so focused on survival that I never really thought too much about what I was missing out on.  Before the accident that killed my parents, I was happy, mostly. I had a big brother, a mother that adored me, and my father, well... he's the reason that I said "mostly". When James graduated high school as valedictorian, my parents decided to celebrate, and decided to drop me off at my aunt's house. When they came to pick me up, they were wasted. Auntie tried to convince them to stay the night and sleep it off, but they refused. They stuck me in the car, despite the fact that I had begged them to let me stay. Even at five, I knew that driving drunk got people hurt. We drove off, and we got on the highway. They were swerving left and right. James Sr. kept swatting at me, hitting, punching, and trying to hurt me as much as he could. Mom kept yelling at him, telling him to look at the road. I screamed, desperate to get their attention so I could warn them about the other car, but they ignored me. We hit head on, and I was the only survivor. Everyone else... everyone else died on impact," she said softly, grimacing as though recalling the memory. "I remember that afterwards, my social worker, Grace, took me to my brother James, where he was already in college. He was with his girlfriend, Mary. Grace told him that he was supposed to become my legal guardian, but his girlfriend said no, and I got stuck into the system." James shook his head. There were just too many similarities for this to be a coincidence.

"What's your full name?" James asked suddenly.

"What?" Gia asked, taken aback.

"Your full name, the one on your birth certificate. What is it?"

"Giovanna Sawyer. Been a long time since I used that name," she said.

"It was me," James announced, tearing up.

"What?"

"I was the one that sent you into the system," he explained.

"And I was the one that turned you away," Mary realized. "I'm so sorry," she said, her voice cracking.

"Wait, it was you?" Gia boomed. Her heart rate spiked, and nurses came rushing in.

"What's wrong?" One of the nurses demanded. Gia shook her head.

"Nothing."

"They why did your heart rate spike?"

"Nothing," Gia insisted forcefully. The nurse raised her arms in surrender and led the other two out of the room, where a mother and a father were sobbing, and a sixteen-year-old was screaming for help, even though she was silent. After all, silence is the loudest cry for help there is. Isn't it?