Broken - #Wattys2016 Completed

BROKEN Chapter 6

October 23, 2013

The police hadn't kept Victoria in suspense for long, they hadn't really even asked her many questions. No more than Nurse Rose had asked Danny - they must not have felt the need to.

From the moment they grabbed her by the shoulders and cuffed her at the hospital it seemed they had already made up their mind that she was guilty. Regardless of what she said to them.

It was cold and no air seemed to circulate making it smell musty inside the police station interrogation rooms. The walls were a grotty cream color with brown fibrous flooring, it felt as though she were in some underground cave. The only source of comfort or warmth had been the single dim flickering fluorescent light that seemed too small to fully illuminate the room.

Right after they had brought her there they had asked her a few questions about what had happened earlier on, given her a blood alcohol test, a saliva test and then left. Some kind soul-one, of the pair who had grabbed her from the hospital had poked his head in the room and thrown a crocheted blanket at her. Gratefully she had wrapped herself up in it. She was freezing cold and had been feeling extremely self-conscious in her flimsy black night dress. Then she had waited in silence.

Her mind was going in circles, this had to be some terrible mistake. She hadn't hurt Emily, surely they were talking to Danny right now at the hospital, he would tell them it was a misunderstanding. He didn't mean those things he said to Nurse Rose...

Any moment they would realize what had really happened and they would let her go and she would rush back to find Emily, who would be fine. They would all go home and laugh about it....well maybe not laugh, but hold each other tightly and rejoice that all of this. Everything that had happened was just a big mistake, because that's exactly what all of this was, it was a big, big misunderstanding - a mistake.

But what if it wasn't...did Danny really think she had done this? Victoria looked at the crochet blanket she was wrapped up in and it made her think of her Nan. Tears began to well up in her eyes. Nan would have believed her, she would have been right there for her, she would have rallied to get her out of the dark cave they were keeping her in.

Her Nan would have made them see sense, she would have looked after her, just like she always had done...but the cold reality was, she wasn't there, not any more, she was resting peacefully.

When Victoria first lost her Nan it had been hard, but she had Demi to help ease the pain and Danny had been there for her and that was enough. But now for the first time in over 10 years when she had watched her mother leave her for the final time, she had a sinking feeling of abandonment. Of being in this world all alone.

The two police officers come back into the room and stood over Victoria, who pulled the blanket even tighter around herself and shrunk back into the chair trying to make herself as small and insignificant as possible. She was hoping they were there to apologize and let her free. Looking at the blanket again she decided she would ask to keep it to go home in and return it back to them washed another day.

One of the officers, whose name badge said Crawley, began to talk, "Victoria Thorne we are formally charging you with infantile abuse. You will be assessed for your mental state as we hold concerns about you harming yourself or others. You will be held in custody until such time as a magistrate's court hearing can be arranged."

"What does that even mean?" asked Victoria bewildered looking at the two policemen, one after the other, searching for answers.

The other policeman, the one who had given her the blanket moved towards her, she looked at his badge it said McGuinty. She watched him cautiously as he sat down in a chair next to her and said kindly, "Miss Thorne that means that you are being charged for abusing the baby.."