Broken Heartbeat

Chapter 6

(Matt's POV)

"Ryan, do you realise what you've just done?" I hear Ruby hiss at her boyfriend in fury. "She was so scared and now she's going to be ten times worse!"

"Ruby, we didn't have a choice! You saw exactly what Matt and I both saw! You know damn well it was the right thing to do!"

Ryan lets out an exasperated sigh and pulls a now sobbing Ruby into his chest.

"I know, baby. I know."

I turn away from them and give them the privacy while Ryan tries to console my distraught sister. I'd comfort her myself but I'm too numb.

We've been at the hospital for little over an hour now. Jasmine was rushed into a private emergency room and the three of us are waiting for a doctor to emerge and give us an update. Ruby is terrified that Jas will look at our calling an ambulance as an act of betrayal. On one side I see where she's coming from. Jasmine, clearly in a damaged state, turned to her best friend out of trust and hoped that Ruby would keep her secret. However, I agree more so with Ryan. Jasmine is in desperate need of medical attention and doing anything other than calling an ambulance would be idiotic.

I've never felt so sick in my life. The image of Jasmine's abused body will haunt me for the rest of my life. That bastard destroyed her. One look at her and I know she'll never be the same again.

"How is she?" I suddenly hear Ruby splutter out and my eyes snap up to meet a middle-aged male doctor standing before her. I rush over and stand beside my sister, my eyes no doubt filled with worry.

"She's not good," he tells us before indicating to the empty chairs in the corner of the waiting room.

My stomach drops at those words and I all but collapse into the chair behind me.

"W-what do you mean?" Ruby asks weakly.

"Her body has suffered a serious amount of trauma," the doctor explains. "By the looks of things she's been abused for several years now. The first evidence of this was with her collarbone. It appears to have been broken before and never properly repaired. It healed itself but unfortunately not correctly. We had to reset it so she's going to be in quite a bit of pain for some time."

"Shit," Ryan mutters as he wraps an arm tighter around Ruby. Tears are streaming down her face and once glance at her expression tells me that she feels as guilty as I do.

"She's severely malnourished which would immediately indicate to us that she has been starved for an extended period of time. She will naturally need to be introduced to a proper balanced diet but this will need to be done gradually so as to not overwhelm her body."

"W-will you give her a diet plan or something?" Ruby asks.

"Yes, everything will be explained and we will give Jasmine all the support she needs to regain her health. It will be difficult at first and her support system at home will be more important than the one that our internal team will give."

Ruby nods in understanding while I just remain silent as all this information washes over me. I've never felt so horrified. By the sounds of it, Jasmine has a long road to recovery ahead of her. I know, without a doubt, that I will be there to help her through every single day.

"Shall I continue?" The Doctor asks.

"There's more?" Ryan asks in horror.

"I'm afraid so. Our scans show that Jasmine has sustained an unusual amount of abuse over the past few weeks. This has led to a serious amount of internal bleeding. While the bruises that cover the outside her body are concerning, the internal bleeding is much more severe. She also has three fractured ribs, which are being attended to right now in surgery, as is the internal bleeding. She will need to stay in the hospital for a day or two while we monitor her in post-op."