When did I become so numb?

Just five minutes of my time

Little did he know the answer to that burning question of his was left on the swing-set at the porch of the cottage.

In her haste to avoid having to deal with Christian's questions, Ana left the laptop with all those disturbing images and the bone chilling message from 'El Diablo' on said swing set...

~ Ten days later ~

Ana awoke by the sound of her alarm.

"Shut it." She hissed, and grabbed her phone with her eyes still closed.

After swiping it to turn off the alarm, Ana disappeared under the bed covers again. She knew that she had to get up and get ready for the day.

However, even after her scheduled rest, Ana felt so exhausted. She wasn't physically tired, but emotionally she was. Since she had seen the contents of the flash-drive, her mind was being consumed by it, by 'El Diablo', and also what she had experienced on the night she left Christian, six years ago...

Two weeks after she had officially moved to New York, Ana had contacted her father. He was happy to see his only daughter on his doorstep, but was also a little mad that she hadn't asked him to pick her up from the airport.

Ana made up an excuse, and fortunately he didn't press the matter, too excited and happy that his precious daughter was back.

Little did he know the reason why Ana hadn't asked him to pick her up, was that she did not want her dad to see her face. The moment she had arrived in New York, she told the cab driver to bring her to the nearest hospital. Ana was treated there; she received four stitches for the huge gash on the spot above her right brow, medicine for her swollen face, and pain killers.

After two weeks being in New York, she finally visited her father, because her face was heeled.

"What happened to you, honey? There's a fresh scar above your right eyebrow." her father had asked Ana.

She knew he was going to ask about it, so Ana had thought of an excuse and answered her dad's question.

Bit by bit, Ana had built her life up again in New York. The first four months were grueling, because she became extremely paranoid, believing that she saw 'El Diablo's' people everywhere...

Ana had been extra careful and avoided contact with Christian. Their threat was simple... she had to keep her mouth shut about what had happened to Shawn. And that's exactly what Ana did.

She had followed 'El Diablo's' order and stayed away from Christian...

However, when Christian had the accident more than a month ago, she didn't care about 'El Diablo' or the senator. All Ana thought about was to get to Christian...

Not long after, Elliot had asked her to consider taking his brother's case, and become his physical therapist so she could help Christian rehabilitate...

And here she was with Christian, and her assistant in the middle of nowhere. It had been exactly ten days, since Ana had received and seen the contents of the flash-drive.

Those images haunted Ana, even in her sleep. So at a certain point, she felt emotionally drained. Even after a good night 's rest, Ana felt as if she didn't have any energy to get up, let alone stay focused on and do her job properly.

For a little more than a week, Christian had been a model patient, doing exactly what Ana told him to during the physical therapy. In her whole career, Ana hadn't encountered such a patient before— he worked extremely hard, and kept up with Ana's instructions, even if Jose found that she was pushing him too hard.