Chapter 5 - Whispers in the Dark
The rhythmic beep... beep... beep of the pediatric intensive care unit was the only sound keeping Julian grounded.
He sat beside Diego’s hospital bed, his large, rough hand encasing the boy's tiny, bandaged fingers. Diego’s left arm was encased in a fresh plaster cast, and a plastic nasal cannula delivered a steady stream of oxygen into his nostrils. The boy looked impossibly small in the vast electronic bed, surrounded by monitors that beeped like digital sentinels.
Julian bowed his head, resting his forehead against the cold safety rail. For the first time in ten years, a single, searing tear escaped his eye and soaked into the sterile white sheets.
"Forgive me," Julian whispered to the silent room. "I was conquering empires while the wolves were feeding in my home. I am so sorry, Diego."
A tiny twitch answered him. Julian’s head snapped up.
Diego’s hazel eyes were fluttering open. They were cloudy with lingering anesthesia and exhaustion, but as they focused on his father’s face, the terror that usually resided in them melted away, replaced by disbelief.
"Dad?" the boy breathed, his voice barely audible beneath the hiss of oxygen.
"I'm here, son. I'm right here," Julian leaned close, gently stroking Diego's unruly brown curls. "You're safe. You're in the hospital. Nobody is ever going to hurt you again."
Diego looked toward the heavy wooden door of the private suite, his eyes widening in sudden, instinctual panic. He tried to shrink back into the mattress, wincing as his cracked ribs protested. "Is... is she coming? Did you tell her I cried?"
The raw, ingrained horror in his seven-year-old voice nearly snapped Julian’s sanity. "No, Diego. Vanessa is gone. She will never step foot in our home again. I swear it on your mother’s soul."
Diego exhaled a long, shuddering breath, his fragile chest rising and falling unevenly. He reached up with his uninjured right hand, tugging weakly on Julian's sleeve. "Dad... it wasn't just her."
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Julian froze. His heart stopped beating for an entire agonizing second. "What did you say, Diego?"
"The man," Diego whispered, trembling. "The man who came when you were on airplanes. He held me down so she could hit me."
