𝒯𝓇𝓊𝓈𝓉 𝓂𝑒

Care

The sound of beeping is what seemed to have woken me up again. Everything in my body was painful. I slowly pried my eyes open to be met with a very bright white light. I was in a hospital room.

I turned my head upwards, I was attached to monitors who were checking my every move. It took all my strength to push my body up against the metal headboard of the hospital bed, sitting upwards.

That was when realization took over me, I was in a hospital gown, attached to dozens of wires. The doctors had seen my body, resulting in the fact that my family probably also knew now.

I looked around the room, nobody was here. Maybe they had already left me? They found out I was broken, dropped me off at the hospital and left. Maybe that would have been for the best.

The door opened and a doctor came walking in. He looked older, maybe in his 50s, he was bald and his eyebrows had almost entirely turned gray.

"Miss Alvarez, I'm doctor Johnson . Your family's personal doctor" he said, flashing his white teeth at me.

"Nice to meet you" I politely smiled, how do you talk to someone who probably just found out you were abused and raped. "Not to be rude, but why am I here?" I asked.

"Mr. Alvarez, your brother, brought you in last night, you had fainted due to a lack of food." He explained, checking the machine I was hooked up to. "He also told us you had a few bruises around your arms"

"Right" I whispered, fumbling with the sleeves of my hospital gown.

"You had two fractured ribs, a dislocated shoulder, and loads of bruises" he continued. "Now I don't want to jump towards any conclusions, but these usually are signs of physical abuse. So, we're you in an abusive situation or relationship?"

I sighed and looked up at him, what was I going to tell him. I could lie, tell him I fell or got hit by a car. Or I could tell him the truth, he was a doctor, he wasn't allowed to give personal information of his patients, right? Maybe it won't be that bad to tell him.

"I was abused, I ehh, didn't have the best bond with my mom and stepfather. They used it as a punishing mechanism." I started. "It wasn't fully their fault though so I don't know if you can call it abuse, I mean I wasn't the easiest child, I would disobey them sometimes and- I mean their is probably people who've had it worse then me so I don't want to compare."

"you must remember that abuse is never the victims fault, and being violent to a child is never an option, it doesn't matter what level off abuse you went through, it's still unacceptable." He sternly said.

Maybe he was right, I had never victimized myself due to the fact that growing up it was made clear that all actions had consequences. They always had their reasons. If John would hit me, it would be because I didn't finish making dinner in time. When my mom locked me in my room, it was because I didn't came home right from school.

I knew this way of punishment wasn't normal but it was to me, and for thousands of other children around the world. So I never felt like I needed to do something because I wasn't the only one who was going through this, it became normal.

Until I got here, I had never seen my brothers got hit or badly punished, and maybe that was because they didn't have to do chores due to growing up rich, but there was a difference in the way they talked to our father. Still with respect, and he was strict, sure. But they never showed any sense of fear when talking to him, they smiled during dinner and had small arguments without it leading to a huge fight.