Torn

Enraged

I woke up completely groggy and it felt like an elephant was sitting on my lungs, then I realized I was in a hospital and there was a tube going down my throat. I saw Kelly sleeping in a chair by my bed, then everything came back and I remembered what happened. I worried about Ava and suddenly letting Kelly sleep was second, I needed to make sure she was ok. So I tapped his shoulder.

"Oh my god, you're awake" he said kissing my cheek.

I tried to talk around the tube, but it was just garbled.

"No don't try to talk with that thing in" he said getting up and going to get someone.

The nurse came in with a little dry erase board and handed it to me.

"How you feeling sweetie?" she asked.

'Ava!' I wrote down.

"She's fine, Tahlia. She's with my chief and his family, they're taking good care of her" Kelly said.

"Now how are you?" the nurse reiterated.

'Pain in throat' I wrote.

"Well you have a bruised larynx, other than how are you?" the nurse asked.

'Pissed!' I wrote.

"I'll let the doctor know that you're awake" she said.

"It's going to be ok" Kelly said kissing my hand.

I hated that I let myself get into this kind of situation, I should've just put in a few years and went on my way like his father had suggested when he picked me at Yale. But it was such a privilege being under the tutelage of James Latham Sr. he had argued some landmark cases of every variety, which is why I wanted to stay under his wing for as long as possible.

I had always just brushed off James' advances hoping one day he'd just get with one of the trap ho's who followed him around would keep his attention, never did I think for a minute his advances was serious. I had told him repeatedly he wasn't my type, I mean I could see from a mile away that he would be a controlling asshole.

I remembered nights going over briefs and depositions, he would always sit next to me and get close to me. Even when I told him to stop and tried requesting someone else to work with, but his father was a partner and so he was basically given whatever he wanted.

More than anything though I hated that I was bringing all this drama into Kelly's life, it wasn't how I wanted this to play out at all.

'I'm sorry, I don't want to bring drama into your life' I wrote when I noticed him watching me.

He wiped a tear from my eye and pushed my hair back.

"Don't worry about that, I only care about you and Ava right now. How do you feel?" he asked.

'like killing James' I wrote he laughed.

"That's my girl, but not before me" he said.

I spent the week in the hospital, they wanted to make sure everything was ok, they took the tube out after a couple days. Then sent me home with instructions on how to care for my throat, Kelly told me that we were moving into his apartment.

I didn't mind that since I never wanted to go back to my old apartment, but I didn't want Ava seeing me like this but I didn't want her around strangers at the moment. Kelly had talked to my parents plus the nursing home where my parents were and told them what happened to me, I didn't want them to see me like this either and he told me my mother was recovering well. So that was all I needed to get through this, Ava and I both cried when he brought her home.