It's just Business 2

Questioning

Clare opened her eyes. They adjusted to the bright lights above her. She smiled peacefully. Then she remembered what had happened. She shot straight up. She was in a hospital room, and tubes surrounded her. She looked over and watched the monitor steadily beep.

The room was decent size, with two paisley chairs in the corner, and a small TV on the wall.

Clare noticed the pain in her throat and legs had gone down some, and she examined her wounds. Her wrists were bandaged up, probably from the ropes, and two tubes were in her arms, pumping a clear liquid.

She closed her eyes, and pulled the cover off of her. She fearfully opened her eyes, and gasped. Her legs were badly wounded, to say the least. They were a funny purple color, which she didn't think they were supposed to be, and blotches of red and blue dots adorned both legs. Clare quickly pulled the blanket back over her, and shuddered at the thought of when Liam hit her. She tried to remember what happened after but couldn't seem to.

Clare felt bandages around her stomach, and sighed. It was as if her entire body was wounded.

Then she gently touched her throat, and flinched. She definitely didn't want to see her throat, just then remembering  Liam's hands closing her esophagus.

A door closed, and a nurse walked into the room. "Oh good, you're awake!" She looked about in her 30's with peach hair, and brown eyes. "Poor thing..." she frowned, looking at my neck. She grabbed a bucket of water, and a rag, and dunked it in. She wringed it out, and placed it on my neck. I sighed in relief as the cold rag extracted the heat from my throat. "Thank you.." I said, and furrowed my brows at the sound of my voice. It didn't hurt to speak anymore, but my voice was hoarse and weak.

The nurse hushed me. "You need to rest your voice..."

"How long have I been out?" I asked, completely ignoring her.

"About 5 hours..." the nurse answered, checking her watch. "We thought you were in a coma, cause you hit your head pretty hard! But thank goodness you're awake!"

Clare looked around the room. "What happened?"

"Someone found you in your car passed out and took you here. The man said Liam Payne had tried to strangle you, so we got the police out, and sure enough. Liam was at the Winchester Bridge, but he had been beaten to death almost!" she sighed. "He's on floor 3..." she looked at me. "I know you want to talk to your family, but the police need to question you before you can."

Clare was still processing things. It was about midnight, she estimated, and she was supposed to be at home, not being able to sleep because her wedding was in a few hours. Her wedding! Instead, she's in a hospital, with injuries that would take weeks to go away! Everything was falling apart!

"Would you be willing to talk to the police now?" the nurse asked, interrupting her thoughts.

Clare really didn't want to relive those horrible memories, but she gently nodded her head.

The nurse smiled sweetly at her, and left the room.

Before the door closed, Clare heard at least 10 people ask, "Is she ok?"

She wanted to scream, "Yes, I'm ok!" and have them run to her, and make the pain go away, and hug her, and kiss her, but that obviously wouldn't happen.

Clare listened hard at what they were saying through the wall.

"Can we see her?" someone asked. Clare smiled at Harry's voice.

"Not yet...police need to ask questions..."

Harry's voice rose. "But I have to see my fiancé!" he yelled.

"Sir, calm down!"

Just then, two police officers walked into the room. "Hello, Ms. Sumners...may we speak to you?"

"Do I have a choice?" Clare asked, seriously, but the men laughed.

"I'm Chief Miller and this is private investigator, John Stewart..." one police officer introduced. They were both pretty young, but they were already going bald.

I nodded.

"Alright....let's start with what happened..." Chief Miller said, and John opened up his pad.

"Well...I was at the club for a bachelorette party with my friends..." Clare started, remembering early in the night. She wondered if her friends were here. "I went to the bathroom, and when I got out, someone grabbed me, and I blacked out." She paused, watching John scribble on his notepad, occasionally nodding.

The chief looked at her. "Go on..."

"When I awoke, I was blindfolded, but knew I was in a car..."

"And the people in the car with you were Liam Payne, and his bodyguard, Gordon Toklas, correct?"

Clare nodded, her voice starting to hurt. "The car stopped, and they sat me by the bridge, and started beating me with a bat..." she stopped, tears forming in her eyes. She didn't want to remember. She wanted to forget what they did to her!

"Ms. Sumners, do you want to stop?"

"No..." Clare said, and continued. She just wanted to get this over with and never have to think about it again. She wanted Liam in his rightful place. Jail. "I was able to get away, but Liam caught me and started to strangle me..." she held back tears, not looking at the officers. "When I thought it was over, Gordon pulled him off, and started beating him. Let's just say I didn't stay to watch...I ran to the van and drove away. I must've passed out, and now I'm here..."

The men looked at each other, and Chief Miller grabbed her hand. "I'm so sorry..." he genuinely meant. "Liam will pay for what he did to you..."

John, the less sincere one, spoke up. "What made him want to do that to you?"

Clare had feared for that question. "I used to have a bad job...and Liam got hurt verbally by me in the process. You'll know what I'm talking about when you look at my files. But you must know that I stopped doing what I did, and am now trying to become a new and improved person."

The men both nodded, and got up. "Thank you for your time..."