Black (Clashing Colors Book 1) by Elin Peer Read Free Book Online Page B

behavior, the quicker she can progress to the next level.”
    “And what is the next level?”
    He pointed up to a board on the wall behind me. “Those are the age group definitions that we work with.
    “Infant is from birth to twelve months.
    “Toddler is from one to four years.
    “Child is from five to ten; and preteen is from ten to thirteen, where we reach the teenage years.
    “Of course after that comes young adult, adult, and elder adult, but with Cia those are irrelevant. Her problems seem to derive from her childhood and that’s what we’ll focus on.”
    “I see…” I took a deep breath. “So the next two weeks you want her to go through role-plays of being a baby, a toddler, a child, and a teenager.”
    “Yes, and a preteen too,” he added and pushed up from his chair.
    “And you want me to act as her father?”
    “Yes, she will call you Daddy or Father and you’ll refer to her as Cia, honey, or whatever endearment you find works for you and her.”
    He held out his hand to signal he wanted me to get up from the chair and walk with him.
    “Do all your clients go through this program?”
    “More or less,” he said.
    “I don’t think Cia is going to like it,” I said slowly and followed him out the door. The thought of the Goth girl I had come to know was incompatible with what he wanted her to do. The image of her walking out of Starbuck yesterday and flipping a finger at a guy in a car came to mind. There was nothing childish about her. Cia was hard, edgy, and angry, and she certainly didn’t take orders well.
    We walked from the main house to one of the small cabins, and Bruce entered and spread his arms. “This is it. Your room for the next two weeks, I trust that you and Cia will be comfortable here.”
    I looked around and bit my inner cheek. It wasn’t that it was bad or anything… but it was just one room with a queen-size bed, a closet, two nightstands, and a chair.
    Bruce opened the door to the bathroom. “All our cabins have a bathtub, and you’ll need it to give Cia a bath before bedtime.”
    “Wow, hold on. You can’t be serious?”
    Again, the man looked very serious.
    “A bath before bedtime, and don’t try to get out of it, because all cabins are video monitored.”
    “But surely you don’t expect me to physically touch my niece while she’s naked?”
    Bruce closed the door to the bathroom. “There’s nothing sexual in this. I want you to think of her as an infant, and give her the paternal love and care that she didn’t receive as a child. She might resist it, but it’s critical that you do it. You will bathe her, wash her hair and body, and dry her afterwards. When that’s done, you will dress her in her baby jumpsuit and put her to bed with a lullaby. If you can’t do it, I will have one of the therapists take your place, but I can’t stress enough how much better it will be when a family member does it.”
    Fuck! To say I didn’t like this would be an understatement, but somehow the logic in rebooting Cia’s shitty childhood made sense to me. So as the good soldier I am, I would follow orders.
    “But about that video surveillance – who sees those tapes?”
    “I do. I’ll be Cia’s therapist during her stay, and I will be looking closely at her reactions to the exercises as well as the dynamic between you two.”
    “I don’t like that you can see us even in the bathroom,” I said. 
    He arched a brow. “You would be surprised how uninteresting it is to see people groom themselves, and I can assure you that I don’t get a kick out of it. What I’m looking for is mental breakdowns and breakthroughs. Cia is a minefield, and we are about to go map those damn bombs placed throughout her childhood and blow them up once and for all.”
    I grinned. “Now you’re talking… I’m a sapper; blowing up things is my specialty.”
    “A soldier, huh?” He smacked me on my shoulder. “Then this is going to be just another mission.” 
    “To be