broken // branded sequel // heathers au

seven

Veronica's POV

"Mr. and Mrs. Dean, your daughter has some fluid in her lungs. It's not anything serious but this is why she stopped breathing. She's going to be put on an antibiotic to treat it. The fluid doesn't call for removal." The doctor in silver rimmed glasses told JD and I.

"She's going to be okay?" I asked.

"Yes, she is. She'll probably wake up once the antibiotics kick in." The doctor explained. His voice was emotionless. Then again, he probably had to tell people about their child dying. Elody's lungs having fluid was an easy day. An easy case where the girl would survive.

And yet, I could feel myself break inside. She wasn't dead, Elody was very much alive. She just got sick.

"Is there any reason this fluid built up?" JD asked.

"It appears that somehow, your daughter ended up with pneumonia." The doctor explained.

"The chest pain she's been having." I mumbled softly. JD gave me a strange look, one that wasn't quite nasty but it was somewhere close.

"Your daughter has been having chest pains?" The doctor asked me. His voice was judgmental and I started to dislike him for that.

"Yes, but when I asked her about it she said it was anxiety." I said, my voice rising slightly.

"She has panic disorder, Doc." JD added, wrapping his arm around my shoulders to try and relax me. I was actually surprised he knew this. Despite all of his flaws, he somehow knew the smallest details about Elody and I'd imagine it went the same way for Auden as well.

"Well, she'll be alright. Once the fluid is gone and the pneumonia is better, she'll be able to go home." The doctor smiled at JD and I. He walked off as JD and I stood there.

"They haven't said anything about her bruise to me." I told JD softly.

"I said she must have hit her cheek when she passed out." He said back to me, quietly as to not bring about suspicion. I sighed. Once again, my husband had managed to get out of a bad situation through lying and manipulation. It wasn't a surprise, just disappointing.

I had been hoping that the doctors would notice and ask me or Auden about it. I don't know if I would have told the truth, but I liked to think Auden would have. She was always honest, almost to a fault. Honesty doesn't mix well with a closet filled with skeletons. Sadly, that's the kind of closet I have.

Elody's POV

Before I woke up, I dreamt for a while. After the gun shot and darkness, I resurfaced smaller than I was before.

"Mama," I said, my voice higher pitched as I spoke. It was a plea of don't leave me. My mother was leaving me in the care of a babysitter while she went to work her second job as a waitress.

"I've got to go, Giselle. I'll be back. I love you." She told me.

I realized just how often Giselle was told by my mother that she had to go. Or that she was busy. It was common.

Giselle feeling unloved didn't spark with my father's return, is what I'm getting at. She was a secretly unhappy girl for a long time. She didn't have friends, her mother uprooted them too often in the middle of the night for that.

"We have to leave now." She would say in her panicky voice.

Giselle wouldn't fight or argue it, she was used to waking up in the car as her mother explained that she they to leave whatever town they were in for a reason she never shared. Giselle would ask but seldom did she get an answer.