Rebuilding Stone (The Stone Brother Series Book 2) by T Saint John Read Free Book Online Page A

you crawled into the hallway. We don’t know for sure, but we
believe Aaron passed out. He was arrested at the hospital shortly after the
paramedics brought you in. He is meeting with the judge tomorrow, but for right
now, he's in jail.”
    That should be good news, right? Only it isn’t. I noticed
that Maddox said “for right now.” In my mind, I’m screaming for Maddox to get
me out of here. He will kill me! Aaron will kill me when he gets out! Don’t you
understand?! With no way to communicate my message, I begin to tremble again. I
can feel the fight or flight building in me. Alarms start blaring around me.
    “NURSE!” Maddox shouts.
    “Kerrigan!” I can feel Maddox stroking my hair saying,
“Baby, I’m here and I’m not leaving your side. Ever. Kerrigan, I’m so sorry.
Please, Kerrigan, breathe.” His words do little to calm me.
    I hear people running into the room. The alarms start to
quiet down and the last thing I hear before drifting off is Maddox. “I’m here
with you, Kerrigan.”

Maddox
    Sitting here with Kerrigan is eating away at me. When she
woke up, she was terrified. I tried to calm her down, but I couldn’t. Watching
the nurse give a shot to knock her out killed me. How can I help her? Aside
from killing Aaron, I do all that I can right now. I hold her hand and am here
when she wakes up. I can’t leave her side.
    I take turns between staring at the clock and watching her.
Her body is so battered. She doesn’t even look human. Every time I look at all
the damage Aaron did to her, I torment myself. I keep wondering how much pain
she felt. Knowing that Kerrigan even felt an ounce of pain makes me sick. How
could he do this to her?
    After a week, she is able to slightly open her eyes. In her
lucid moments, she looks at me. It's like she’s silently pleading with me. I
know she's scared. I know she doesn’t want me to leave. I do whatever I can in
the moments she’s awake to calm her by playing soft music or reading. I don’t
know if it’s helping, but it’s all I can think of doing.
    Minutes turn into hours, hours into days, and days into
weeks. Slowly, we see the healing process. When Kerrigan finally sees herself
for the first time, she asks me to leave. I refuse, but Lani and Ari ask me to
give her this because she's embarrassed. Kerrigan has nothing to be embarrassed
about. I relent and leave because I don’t want to cause her any stress. I hate
not being there for her. I want her to know I’m here and that I’ll always be
here. I know it’ll take some time for her to come to terms with what happened,
but when she does, I hope she’ll allow me back in.

Chapter 6
 

Kerrigan
    It’s been eight weeks since the beating and I was released
from the hospital a month ago. I didn’t have anywhere to go, so I’ve been
staying with Lani and Ari. I couldn't face leaving the apartment because Aaron
is out on bail pending a trial.
    Besides my sister and Lani, I’ve cut everyone else off,
including Maddox. Seeing him right now isn’t what I want or need. I can only
imagine what he thinks of me. I know he has to wonder why I stayed in such a
bad situation. I did tell him that Aaron told me he would kill him. Of course
Maddox got pissed. I had to tell him, though. He needs to know he's in danger.
    Maddox said all the right things at the hospital, but that’s
what people do when something like this happens. Maddox is a great guy from a
great family. The last thing he needs is to be associated with someone like me.
    I know I'm putting myself down, but I can’t help it. I
guess, in a way, some good came out of the Aaron situation. I realized that
Aaron had me brainwashed. I know the things he'd said aren’t or weren’t true.
Yet, I couldn’t help but hear those awful things repeatedly in my mind. No one
will want me. No one will love me. I’m worthless. My own father didn’t love me
enough. The one person I swore I would never be like, is exactly who I became.
My mother.
    Neither my