Avenging Laura (Special Forces: Operation Alpha)

Chapter 27

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Laura was now truly alone. Joe had taken the kids and left three weeks ago. She hadn’t seen or heard from him since he walked out of the home. Dominick called her twice so far this week so that the kids could talk to her, but she didn’t pick up the phone. She couldn’t. She knew if she talked to them and they asked when they were able to come home, she would break.

Her captain nor her team called to check in on her either. Wolf nor any of the others checked on her as well. She was truly alone. The way she thought she wanted it.

What broke her heart the most, Joe’s family didn’t even call, text, or email her to check on her. It was as if he had truly cut all ties with her.

Isn’t that what she’d been trying to do in the first place? Now that she’d gotten her wish, she was miserable as hell.

She hadn’t been able to eat or do anything since they’d left. She got up to go to the bathroom and crawled right back into the bed. She didn’t even make her physical therapy appointments as directed.

She was miserable. Guess the old saying, be careful what you wished for was true after all.

Getting up, as she thought about it, to go to the bathroom, she only managed to take a couple of steps before her world went dark. Guess God was finally fed up with her shit too.

When Laura came to, she was in the hospital. How the hell did she get here?

“You done with your shit?”

Laura turned her head toward the voice to find her grandmother at her side. She was alone. Her bodyguards nor her brother were in the room with them.

Laura just stared at the old woman, not sure how or if she should respond. The two women wound up in a stare off before the older woman rolled her eyes and tapped her cane onto the floor.

“Your mother and David did you more harm than I obviously thought. You are so damn stubborn, it’s sad. You’re letting them win and it breaks my heart.”

“L-letting them win? How the hell am I letting them win?” Laura glared at her grandmother in anger.

“Because you’re walking away from the man who loves you. The man who would and nearly did burn this entire planet to the ground to find you. The man who loves you unconditionally but is so afraid to do anything because he’s afraid anything he says or does is going to send you running for the damn hills like a scared alley cat. Your mother, David, Maria, and that Cyrus prick are all sitting back and laughing about how easy it was to break you.” Jeannette sighed as she leaned back into her chair.

“Fuck you!” Laura seethed, turning away from her grandmother.

“Now we’re getting somewhere.”

“What?” Laura scoffed, looking at Jeannette like she’d lost her marbles.

“That was the first real emotion you’ve displayed since you were found. You’ve been monotone since that day. No emotion whatsoever. It’s exhausting really.”

“Have you always been this much of a bitch?”

“Watch your mouth, young lady! I understand you’re hurting and angry about whatever, but you do not speak to your grandmother like that!”

Laura and Jeanette both turned at the male voice coming from the doorway. When Laura rolled her eyes and turned away from General McCoy, Jeanette waved at him to come on into the room.

“She’s fine. It’s the first real emotion that she’s shown since coming out of her coma. She refuses to see the head shrink so I’m dealing with the issue.”

“Issue? What issue? I’m nothing. I can’t do my fucking job because I have to go and get my head shrunk because everyone thinks I don’t trust them. My husband left and took the kids because I didn’t tell him about those fucking photos. My own brother barely speaks to me. You barely speak to me. My own newfound daddy hasn’t really spoken to me since I came to. Now that my husband has left, no one speaks to me. So, excuse me if I thought I was giving every fucking person on this planet what they want!” Laura screamed at her grandmother.

When Jeannette started clapping her hands together loudly, Laura glared at her grandmother, ready to punch her in the face. When the woman didn’t stop, Laura started to sit up and throw something at her.

“Now I see your mother in you. She would throw the same tantrum when things didn’t go her way,” Jeannette egged her on.

“Fuck you!” Laura shouted once again. “I want you out of my room!”

“No!” Jeannette responded, leaning back in the seat, her wrist resting on her cane. “You’re going to grow the hell up for once and face your issues instead of burying them. You’re not letting those pissants win.”

“What do you care? You didn’t care when they were beating me as a child. You didn’t care when they locked me in a dark closet as punishment for just breathing or they had company over. You didn’t care when Mom would make me walk out in front of their friends buck ass naked so they could all laugh at how big I was or at my flaws. You didn’t care when I got beat when I couldn’t hear them tell me to do something. You didn’t care when my report cards were displayed and laughed at, and I got called retarded when it was simply me not being able to hear the teacher. You didn’t care when I was forced to marry Jon. You didn’t care when he slapped me in front of the judge because I didn’t pronounce a word right. You didn’t care when he beat me in front of his family or mine. You didn’t care when he and David beat the hell out of me when I refused to leave the department. You didn’t care then, why should I believe you care now? All you cared about was which vacation home you wanted to spend time in overseas.”

Laura nearly deflated when she saw the pain and sadness in her grandmother’s eyes at her words. She’d never spoken to the woman like that.

“Wow! I never thought I’d see my own sister become a cruel bitch!” Dominick said as he walked into the room.

“Don’t get me started on you,” Laura warned, her eyes glaring at him.

“She didn’t know!” Dominick shouted at her. “Every fucking time she did try to interfere, Mom lied to her. Dad lied to her. Hell, even I lied to her about what was going on in the home because I was afraid of what he would do to her if she interfered. Should she have tried harder, maybe, but at the same time I think she wouldn’t be here with us now if she had.”

“You didn’t even protect me!” Laura screamed at Dominick, tears streaming down her face.