Chapter Twelve

Arian

He'd made me watch. It had been brutal, horrifying and inhumane but Rafael had had someone hold my head so I couldn't turn my head away as he'd cut up Matteo's body.

I let out a scream as the image refused to leave my mind and I slide down to the floor clutching the sides of my head and pleading with Rafael to let him go.

"Arian!" A distant, concerned voice calls my name then someone's hands shake me. "Arian!"

"No. No!" I shake my head. "No!"

I feel arms around me and then a soothing voice begins to ring in my head telling me everything is going to be alright and my strangled sobs turn into quiet sniffles. I'm suddenly in Mrs Collins's office and not in that terrible place. I never want to go back there.

"Should I call our family doctor mom?" I hear Mrs James ask.

"No." Mrs Collins replies. "Not yet."

I realize how foolish it was of me to go down memory lane - that memory lane - and now they probably think I'm certifiably mad. I mean, who stares off into space and then st