A Humbled Heart

Chapter 9

"Jade you need to come now please", said Lillian and Jade bolted out of bed and began to pull on her sweatshirt over her leggings and grabbed her sneakers. "What's wrong?"

"Julie has been attacked, she is in a really bad shape, the doctor said we will be lucky enough if she pulls through", answered Lillian between sobs, blood drained from Jade's face as she listened. "Which hospital are you at?"

"The same one I was admitted in". Jade dashed outside the door, it was still dark but she couldn't care less. Running to the bustop she was grateful there was a bus. All through the ride she prayed and jerked her knees to relieve the tension in her back. When she got to the hospital Lillian was already waiting for her at the entrance.

"Where is she?" Lillian led the way to Julie's room and Jade wanted to scream but she remained calm for Lillian's sake. Julie's face was badly battered as if she had been hit intentionally on the face, she had cuts on her arms, neck and leg, her stomach was covered in bruises, and it looked like someone had repeatedly kicked her. Jade wanted to cry so bad her heart was heavy; she had suspected Julie was in trouble but instead of confronting her she had let it slide when Julie brushed off her concerns. Lilia eventually fell asleep from exhaustion so Jade took her place beside Julie and held her hand, the same hand that had refused to reach for help when it had been offered.

Julie woke slowly to the sound of someone praying and weeping, she turned her head to see Jade beside her holding her hand, she knew she could trust Jade with anything but she was too embarrassed with herself to try, the look in Jade's eyes took her off guard for instead of anger she saw love, instead of pity she saw acceptance and it humbled her so much so she felt tears slip from her eyes.

"Julie I'm not going to ask you how you feel because I know you will lie and I am not going to beg you to tell me what happened, I am ordering you so it is not a choice", said Jade calmly but Julie got the hint and spilled her gut. "They attacked me", she whispered, Jade brought a glass of water and held it for her to drink.

"Why did they attack you?" she asked using her mother's tactics. Her mother would knowingly not ask her who the culprit was; instead she would wait until Jade got worked up enough to not care about protecting the person.

"Because I said no to their advances". "Did they come at you at the same time?" asked Jade and Julie nodded in affirmation. "Who are they?" 

"My boyfriend and his friends".

"So you mean David's friends?" asked Jade as she clenched her fist. "Yes but David doesn't know about this, they said he will never believe me, I tried to tell David but he said I was looking for attention", said Julie as more tears leaked out of her eyes. Jade was grateful when the nurse came in and gave Julie more sedative that put her to sleep. All through the ride home she tried to calm down but it wasn't working, it felt like she was carrying the anger of a thousand innocent people and it weighted on her heavily, her heart cried out to God for release but the weight only increased and she didn't know what to do with it.

The house was unusually noisy when she got in, as if testing her patience her family had come to spend two days, the house keeper pulled her aside. "You missed breakfast and your stepmother had a truckload to say about it".

"It's okay, I'll go freshen up and join them then I'll come eat with you later", she answered and left without hearing Maria's reply. Thirty minutes later she came down in black jeans, navy blue cashmere sweater, her hair held together in a loose bun. She followed the noise and judging from the baseball bat on the floor they had had a round of the game. She walked towards them and Elena spotted her first.

"Jade sweet heart where have you been, we didn't see you at breakfast?" asked Elena but Jade didn't answer instead her gaze was on David and his friends who had come to join the conversation. A burning sensation began in the pit of her tummy, it was very similar to the one she felt in the bus, it felt like her entire being were on fire, her composure was calm but her eyes spoke volumes and those eyes remained reverted on James and Grant.