“Are you done yet?” Isabella complained. “You promised you’d play a game with me.”
Moira set aside the music Dr. Cassano had given her with a sigh. She had enjoyed lunch with Adam in the dining room earlier, in spite of Dr. Cassano’s warning and Jack’s threats. They had even made plans to meet for dinner. I can’t help if we run into each other, she reasoned. It’s a small hospital. Oddly enough, she missed Adam when he wasn’t around. And not just because Jack and Isabella seemed to stay away when they were together. “Not tag or hide-and-go-seek, though. Okay?”
“Okay!” Isabella clapped her hands. “Let’s play twenty questions!”
“Animal, vegetable or mineral?” Moira said.
“Um, animal!”
“A real animal or something you made up?”
“Oh, it’s real,” Isabella boasted.
“A unicorn.”
“Hey, no fair!”
“You always pick that, Isabella,” Moira said. “And unicorns aren’t real, by the way. I keep telling you.”
“They are so!”
“Whatever. My turn.”
“That was too fast.” Isabella bounced up and down on the bed, hands clutching her dress. “I want to go again.”
“Fine, go then.”
“Okay, okay…um, got it!”
“Animal, vegetable or mineral?”
“Animal.”
“A real animal?”
“Yes.” Uncertainty crossed Isabella’s face. “Wait…sort of an animal.”
“Is it a person?” Moira asked.
“Yes! It’s a person.”
“Alive or dead?” Jack interrupted. “Hopefully alive. Moira isn’t very good at guessing if someone is dead or not.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Moira asked.
“You know what it means,” Jack said. “Maybe you can guess what I’m thinking next.”
“I don’t want to know what you’re thinking,” Moira muttered.
“This is our game!” Isabella interrupted, glaring at Jack. “Go away!”
Jack’s attention snapped over to her. “Don’t talk to me like that.”
“Moira has to guess my thing first,” Isabella argued.
“Santa Claus,” Moira said, cutting off Jack’s retort. “Am I right?”
Isabella’s face fell. “No fair!”
“It was a lucky guess,” Moira said. “But that was a good one, Isabella.”
“Fan…tastic,” Jack said sarcastically. “What a great game. Maybe I can think of a better one.”
Moira caught his gaze and suppressed a shudder. Jack’s thoughts were too dark for her to comprehend, nor did she want to.
“Play now, while you can, Isabella,” Jack continued. “Apparently, Moira has other plans this evening with her lover freak.”
“You’ve been spending a lot of time with that guy,” Isabella teased in a sing-song voice.
“Yes, she has,” Jack remarked, narrowing his eyes. “The roof and his room…” He dropped his voice. “Is he keeping you busy?”
“None of your business,” Moira retorted. “You seem to know everything. Where are you when I’m with him?” Jack’s infuriated glare made her wish she hadn’t asked. Moira picked up the iPod and shoved in her ear buds, hoping to end the conversation. Her door was opened and she pulled them out again. “Hey.”
Tessa stood at the door, wringing her hands. “Hi. What are you listening to?”
“Moonlight Sonata by Beethoven.”
“Where’s Adam?”
“I don’t know,” Moira said. “Probably in his room.”
“What could he be doing in there?” Jack said, giving Moira derisive look.
Moira clutched her iPod and ignored his remark. It was a blessing to have music to drown him out and she was eager to get back to it.
“My doctor says I’m making progress.” Tessa continued to wring her hands.
“You must be happy about that.”
“My mom is,” she said in a rush. “She stopped by yesterday. I haven’t seen her in a month.”
Moira felt a small stab of sympathy for the girl. “I’m sorry.” She set her iPod aside. “Why hasn’t she stopped by?”
“Because I spit on her.”
“Oh.” Moira wasn’t sure whether to ask. “Why?”
“Because she put me here,” Tessa replied. “She said I scared her.”
Go figure, Moira thought.
“My doctor says I’m making progress,” Tessa repeated.
“Doesn’t look like she’s making progress,” Jack said.
Moira followed Jack’s gaze to Tessa’s wrists and saw they were red and scratched up over her scars. “What happened to your wrists—?”
Tessa quickly pulled the sleeves of her sweater down.
“There you are!” A nurse bustled into the room. “I’ve been looking for you everywhere. I swear, you slip away faster than a six year old!” She took Tessa by the arm. “I hope she wasn’t bothering you?”
“No,” Moira said. “Not at all.” She debated saying something about Tessa’s wrists and decided against it. Her doctor probably already knows, she thought.
“Let’s go back to our room and get some rest before dinner, Tessa.” The nurse hustled the girl out the door.
“Back to your music?” Jack flicked the wire to Moira’s ear buds.
“Yes,” she replied shortly.
Isabella sighed loudly. “I’m so bored.”
“That’s not my problem, Isabella. I already played with you.” Moira slipped the ear buds into her ears again. Jack sat in her line of sight and glowered. Moira cursed the day both became visible and closed her eyes. She heard Jack mutter something unintelligible and opened her eyes again. Isabella was pushing books off the bedside stand, one by one. “Knock it off, Isabella.”
“I am,” she mouthed.
Moira yanked out her ear buds. “Seriously, Isabella. Knock it off!”
“Make me.”
“Stop being a brat.”
“I’m not being a brat!” Isabella countered. Retreating to the corner of the room, she sat on the floor.
“Moira doesn’t want you to interrupt the music her doctor gave her,” Jack said. “So, what love songs did he pick, Moira? Or are they all just about fucking?”
Moira shook her head in disgust and turned her attention to the iPod.
“Don’t ignore me.” He grabbed Moira’s wrist.
The force shifted to her hand. A shock went through her fingers and Moira dropped the iPod with a small cry. She quickly picked it up and saw that the batteries were drained. “I hate both of you! Why can’t you give me a moment’s peace?”
“It’s not my fault I’m here,” Jack said calmly. “And Isabella…” He looked over at her. “She’s a child, Moira.”
“I’ve got nowhere else to go,” Isabella echoed sadly.
A triumphant gleam hit Jack’s eye.