Chapter 10

Three days later, Tia slowly opened up her eyes and found herself very disoriented. The first thing she saw was Aden, gently holding her hand, which was decorated with tape and tubes coming out from it. As she looked around she realized she was in a hospital room.
“Don’t panic, you’re alright.” Aden said softly, looking worried.
She coughed a little and tried to move but her body hurt very badly. “Wh-what’s happening?”
“You’re at the hospital, Tia.” Aden said gently. “Don’t worry, I’m here.”
Tia’s vision was still a little blurry from having just opened her eyes. She felt very drowsy, but soon her memory began flooding back. She remembered telling Aden her secret, she remembered crying, and she remembered looking at the window.
“I jumped.” She said weakly. “I jumped, but I didn’t die.”
“Calm down, Tia.” Aden said, coming closer to her. “No, you didn’t die. It’s okay now, you’re going to be fine.”
“Aden, tell me what’s happened.” Tia said, urgently. “I need to know.”
He paused for a moment, but then nodded. “Well, you did jump alright. I saw you fall and so did Jeremy, Isabella and Lana.”
“You saw me?”
“We were coming back from Winter Formal to visit you. It sucked anyway, so we figured we’d keep you company. But then when we were walking there we saw you. Your parents came out and we called 911.”
“My Uncle.” She said, though the words came out in a dry whisper.
Aden frowned. “Tia, let’s take this one step at a time. You’ve been sleeping for three days, a lot has happened.”
“Three days?” Tia said, feeling a sinking in her heart. “Three days.”
“Yes, three days. Your parents are here too, you know, and so is the rest of the Society. We’ve been visiting you everyday, but they went to go get lunch. They’ll be sad they missed you waking up, maybe we should wait for them.”
“No!” Tia said, grabbing his hand with the arm that wasn’t in a cast. “You need to tell me, Aden, please.”
Aden looked at her and she once again saw his look of strained sorrow and concern. “Tia, you suffered from some pretty bad injuries, but you were lucky. You could have died.”
“I wanted to.” She said softly. “When I jumped I wanted to die so badly.”
Aden frowned. “Why, Tia? I told you I would be there.”
“I’m sorry,” She said, looking straight back at him. “I’m so sorry, Aden, I wasn’t thinking at all. I was just in so much pain I wasn’t thinking.”
He nodded slowly. “Well, when your parents came out I had to tell them. Your Dad tried to catch your Uncle but right when I accused him he ran.”
“He got away?” Tia asked.
Aden shifted uncomfortably. “Sort of. Tia, that night Lana stayed at your house to look after Lucy while we were all at the hospital, and she slept in Lucy’s room. Later that night when your Dad finally gave up, he came back to find that your Uncle hung himself in your room during the night.”
“He’s dead?” Tia asked weakly, suddenly feeling sick to her stomach.
“He probably finally realized what he’d done, or at least finally felt guilty about it. He did so many bad things to you, Ti, and what he did was his choice, no one wanted him to kill himself. It was a cheap way out, really, he never did take responsibility.”
Tia’s eyes suddenly grew wide. “The baby?”
Aden nodded. “The baby is gone, but you didn’t kill it. The baby died before you jumped out of the window, the doctors said it probably happened because of all the problems it had from the genetics, but they could tell it had been gone for awhile already.”
Realization seemed to spark in her eyes. “I bled awhile ago. I didn’t even think about it.”
“You miscarried.” Aden said, nodding. “According to Jeremy it can happen pretty often to normal babies too. I really wonder about that kid and his knowledge of pregnancy sometimes…”
She nodded, though the news only made her feel sicker. “So what happens now?”
“Well, we’ve mostly been waiting for you to wake up. You’ll probably have to stay in the hospital for awhile, and then you’ll be able to go home. They had some social workers come and talk to us, and your parents are going to put you in counseling when you’re better.”
Tia’s eyes opened a little wider. “Counseling?”
“Tia,” Aden said, squeezing her hand a little harder. “You’ve been through things that no one should ever have to go through. It’s not a punishment, it’s just extra support to make sure that you’ll heal. The Society will still be here for you, after this happened we told your parents all about it and they really like the idea. They want you to hang out with us more now, and they want to help you too. They feel really guilty that they didn’t find this out sooner.”
“It’s not their fault.” Tia said, feeling tears stain her eyes. “I didn’t tell them.”
“They’re not mad at you for that. The social workers explained that he probably made it feel like it was your fault, and he might have even threatened you at times. It’s not uncommon, Ti, none of this is your fault and now the important thing is moving on. He won’t hurt you anymore, you’re free.”
Tia felt an odd sense of relief. Though everything that Aden had said wasn’t exactly comforting, she suddenly knew that the worst was over. Things could only get better, and there was something about the memory of coming so close to taking her own life that made her see things differently. She didn’t know why she hadn’t realized sooner that it wasn’t her fault, and that she could have trusted her parents and told them. Suddenly the wall that had been blocking her rational thoughts came tumbling down and she realized just how much she had to look forward to. She was still young, she had a whole life ahead of her, and she knew now she would make the most of it.
“Your face, it’s healed.” She commented, lifting her good hand to touch what had once been a massive bruise.
Aden smiled. “Yeah, it is.”
“You’re free too.” She said. “We’re free. We’re all free.”
Still smiling, Aden took her hand off his face and pressed it to his lips. “We’re going to be just fine.”