Saving Belle

Chapter 5

Kyla's POV

          The sound of beeping in the distance slowly wakes me. Something I realize almost instantly is that my pain is almost gone. My eyes feel so dry as I try to blink them open. After a minute or two I am able to open them all the way but everything is slightly blurry. Everything looks white. Where am I ? 

          As my alertness is growing, the beeping seems a bit louder. My eyes look over to the beeping, a heart monitor I think. The beeping gets louder as I look down and see all of the IVs in my arm. I'm in a hospital. No no no. Who took me here? 

          I try to reach for the wires in my hand but a soft hand covers them making me jump. Looking up I see a woman smiling gently above me. In a soothing voice she says, "It's okay honey. Try and relax you're safe."

          My voice is a whisper, "Why am I here? I'm fine. Can I please go home?"

          The woman sighs lightly, "How about I go get the doctor first? Let her take a look at you and then we can see what we can do. You just rest and I will be right back." she stands ans starts to leave the room.

          "W-who are you?" I ask timidly.

          She turns back around and her bouncy red curls fling everywhere, there's something comforting about her and I'm not sure why. "I am Nathan's wife, Jessie. The cop that took you to the hospital." With that she walks out to fetch a doctor.

          While I wait, I look around to try to find anything that looks familiar. I don't even know where my clothes are. God Margo and Thomas are going to be so mad at me for not coming home. It's only been a few hours I can assume so maybe they will go lighter on me. I can say I got robbed and lost the beer, maybe that'll work.

          There was a knock at the door and in walks another woman but this one was dressed in a clean white coat, the doctor. "Hello Kyla. My name is Doctor Tia, how are you feeling?"

          I look down at my body again, still confused why there's no pain. "I feel fine. There's no pain."

          "That's good. After your surgery we gave you some strong pain medicine to try and soothe your body. You've been through a lot in the last four days."

          My eyes grow wide and I almost shout, "Four days?!?"

          Doctor Tia gives me a look of sympathy, "Your rectum needed stitches. Whoever hurt you did a lot of damage Kyla. You aren't going to have an easy time walking for a while because of those stitches. Luckily the stitches will only need to be in for another day or two then we will place you on bed rest to not irritate the wound. We are going to keep you on liquid diet for about a week because of your situation."

           Jessie steps forward, "Kyla, who hurt you? The cops keep coming to talk to you but you've been asleep since the surgery."

          I shake my head and look down. The doctor speaks now, "We also did a test. Jessie why don't you go get Nathan and Luca for me?"

          I look up curiously, "What test?"

          As Luca, Luca's father, and Jessie walk in, the doctor explains, "There was a little girl named Belle Hargrave that went missing when she was three. The cops arrested and chargeed her mother with kidnap and murder after a year of searching for the child. You look like the picture of what Belle would look like now. You also have the scar on your chin that Bella had and you are the same age as she would be currently. Nathan Hargrave," She stops to point to the cop and he smiles at me, "is the father of Belle and Luca," She points to Luca, "is belle's older brother. Luca met you and said you just like you did when you are little. The police did some digging and you match with all of the descriptions so we did a DNA test."

          My head is spinning. I speak now, "Um. My name is Kyla and my parents died when I was two. You have it wrong." I look over to Luca and Nathan, "I'm sorry but I'm not who you are looking for."

           Doctor Tia pulls a chair next to me and takes my hand in hers, "Kyla, those test results came back."

           Her pause sends my heart raising. I don't have any family this is insane. There's no way I am some missing child that they are talking about. They just wasted their time and money on a test I don't have insurance for. Luca steps slightly closer to me and I look in his direction. He is staring, unblinkingly, at the doctor with a look of desperation. The opposite is happening with Jessie and Nathan. They are holding each other and staring down at me. Nathan looks so worried.

           The doctor takes a deep breath and speaks up, "The test came back ninety-nine percent positive that you are the kin of Nathan Hargrave. Kyla, your real name is Belle and this is your family."

           I hear Jessie start to cry and Nathan lets out a huge breath like he has been holding it for hours. Luca practically falls over and pulls me into his arms. I can feel his tears on my neck and his shoulders shake as he cries on me. I don't know how to respond so I wrap my arms around his waist. Luca is rambling into my shoulder, "I knew it! I knew the minute I saw your big blue eyes that you were Belle. God I have missed you so much little bear."

           That nickname made me freeze. Little bear. Suddenly I have a flash to being little, like in the dreams, and a boy calling out to me. But he isn't yelling my name. He is yelling out little bear. Oh god. This isn't my imagination this is a memory. I have a family. I have a family!

           I start to cry as well, "Little bear. I-i remember th-that name." 

           Nathan laughs loudly, "You used to hate that name so much. You would come to me crying that 'bubba' was calling you mean names."

          I smile at that. Suddenly Luca backs up quickly. He looks me dead in the eye with a look of seriousness, "Belle, um Kyla. I need you to be honest and tell me the truth. I need you to tell me who hurt you."

          The room went completely silent. Nathan spoke up, "Luca. Don't scare her. She just heard something completely life changing. Kyla doesn't need any more stress right now."

          I sigh in relief but then Luca raises his voice, "I just found out the girl you rushed to the hospital, who needed surgery, is my baby sister. MY baby sister we have been looking for thirteen years now. But dad remind me why she was rushed to the hospital? GO ahead say it," Nathan says nothing, "She was raped! Not only was she raped but it was so severe she needed a surgery to stitch her up! I want to know who did this and who hurt my sister!"

          I shrink back into my hospital bed. Loud voices scare me. All Eric does is yell at me and it always ends with me getting hurt. I start to have trouble breathing as flashes of my foster brother abusing me pop into my head. I can't breathe. Doctor Tia tries to calm me, "Kyla I need you to breathe. If you don't calm down I'll have to sedate you and I don't want to put you through any more."

           I wring my hands together and close my eyes trying to concentrate on my breathing and after a few minutes I am breathing regularly again. When I open my eyes, everyone is staring at me.

          Luca, now backed away from the bed to give me space, "I'm so sorry for yelling. It's just," He takes a deep breathe, "I never stopped looking for you. Even when the counselors and people around me tried to convince me that you were dead. I never stopped looking. And now we find you and you clearly have been hurt by someone and bad. I live barely twenty minutes from this hospital. You have been so close and hurting and I couldn't help you. I want to help you now."

          I refuse to speak. Eric would hurt him too. I won't let it happen. Eric will never hurt anyone because of me. I'll be damned before I let others hurt because of me.