chapter nineteen
The curtain opened and Linda popped her head around before asking if I was awake. I nodded, answered I was and sat up. She walked towards the edge of the bed and I smiled and asked how she was.
"Fine thanks you? Jay said you wanted to know about Jasmine?"
I nodded. I was anxious to know how she was. The health of my step-daughter was the only thing that mattered right now,
"Please tell me she's okay?"
"Relax." Linda answered, "I examined her and she's fine. If anything she's just a little shaken."
I noticed something though, like she was trying to hold something back.
"Tell me." I asked, "Please."
"It's probably nothing but when I examined Jasmine, I found several bruises on her body especially on her thighs and the tops of her arms. When the second patient came in, I noticed she froze but she claimed she didn't know who he was."
I thanked her and told her I probably knew why she'd frozen when Malick was brought in. I didn't want to believe it though. Had he raped my step-daughter because I wasn't enough?
When she left, I felt the slight vibration of my mobile phone on my thigh and finding my phone, found out I had one message. Opening it up, I saw it was from Jasmine.
Tell dad, I'm sorry. Love you both. xx
I quickly sent a reply, Where are you? xx
I took a while for her to reply and as each second passed. I was worried. What if she was planning on doing something stupid?
On the roof. xx She replied and I bit my lower lip, I needed to get up there.
I got to the roof to find Jasmine sat at the edge. It was windy, the wind blowing her brunette hair around and I slowly walked up to the edge, careful not to scare her.
"Jas?" I whispered as I got closer, "Can I sit down?"
I barely heard her reply but the nod of her head indicated that she agreed. I slowly sat down beside her, my own feet dangling down over the edge. I looked down and felt sick. It was a long way down!
"Jas, what's wrong?" I asked and looked at her. Her usually immaculate makeup had run down her face, leaving a trail of mascara lines down her powdered cheeks.
"Nothing." She answered, "I'm okay."
"You're on the roof." I pointed out. I heard her sigh and tell me I'd never understand.
"Try me." I answered back.
There was nothing but silence for a minute before she looked at me,
"Malick." She whispered, "He's only in hospital because of me. I stabbed him, it was me Lauren. I'm the reason."
I looked at my step-daughter and smiled softly. She frowned, confused to why I wasn't mad with her.
"Why aren't you mad at me?"
"Linda told me about the bruises Jas, Malick did them didn't he? He tried to rape you didn't he?"
She froze. She just looked at me wondering how I knew he'd tried to do that to her. She nodded her head, tears pooling down her cheeks, "I..I told him to stop but he didn't."
"And that's when you stabbed him?"
She nodded slowly and burst into tears. I wrapped my arms around her and ran a hand up and down her back whilst whispering comforting things in her ear.
Breaking the hug between us, I stood up and offered her my hand. She looked up at me, took my hand and stood up.
And together, we left the roof. Our relationship a lot stronger than before.
a/n: if you like it enough to favourite/alert, please leave a review.
sorry for the late update, my muse took a short break. don't fear though, she's back :}