She was okay. Well, she was alive.

My stomach turned flips on our way to the hospital. I couldn't stop crying. I needed to get myself together. My brothers, heavy with their own guilt and sorrow, watched me like they were afraid I was going to go crazy any minute. I feared Eden wouldn't be the same. I needed to know she'd be alright and I needed to be there for her. She was with those monsters for almost thirteen hours. I could only imagine the shit she had to go through without me to help her.

I couldn't help but hate myself. I knew it wasn't logical to take all the blame for what Eden had been through, but I did. If I hadn't been such a fool and tried to make her jealous, she wouldn't be in this situation. If I'd never met Sophie, I could have taken Eden home. If I had been there for her, I could have protected her from the evil people that were supposed to be her brother and sister. I should have gone after her.

I was a wreck, a mess. I hadn't stopped crying and I was sure I looked terrible. I was so scared. The closer we got to the hospital the more I worried, needing my Eden to get through this. The seven of us rushed into the hospital. My dad, trying his best to be the strongest of all of his blubbering family, spoke with the nurse at the front desk and asked where we could find Eden.

The nurse informed us of the room she was in but told us we might not be able to see her for another few hours. When we all began to protest, she hushed us with an admonishing glare. She told us Eden was in the operating room and it wasn't confirmed when she'd be done.

The police we talked to when Eden was found didn't tell us much of anything, much less she'd be needing surgery on her ruptured liver. As a result of three broken lower ribs, Eden's liver burst. They told us she was given a computerized tomography scan and it was determined they would need to do surgery after the embolization, a procedure done to quell the bleeding in the injured blood vessel, didn't work and she continued to bleed. She would be stitched with sutures and closely monitored.

I felt hopeless. What more could the poor girl go through?

I wanted to stick my hand through a wall when we were told the long list of issues my Eden would need to overcome. Perhaps the most serious was a slight swelling of the brain from some type of head trauma. The nurse said they would need to monitor her to ensure there wouldn't be lasting effects. Her lacerated liver and broken ribs might cause quite a few issues with chest infections and would certainly cause her a great deal of pain.

Eden had also been beaten with a whip. When we were told, I couldn't help but groan with worry, Mom couldn't seem to hold herself together, and even Dad had multiple tears in his eyes. They said most marks weren't enough to break the skin, but a few would need stitches and all would require a lot of supervision, the main one a hit to her back very likely to produce infection.

She was severely dehydrated and connected to multiple drips. Both of her wrists were injured, one broke and the other bruised and bloody. The bastards fucking hung her from a damn ceiling like a cow carcass or something. Luckily the beating she was given didn't give her any more broken bones, but she did have a bruised hip glittered with scrapes, likely from falling on some type of hard surface.

They warned us the majority of her body was bruised and battered and she would look to be in a lot more pain than she was because she was on a lot of pain medication and would be for quite a while. They also made sure to let us know she might not wake up for quite a bit of time, her body needing as much rest as it could get. I didn't care how long she slept as long as she woke up healthy.

❃❃❃

My mom and I were allowed to see her first. When I saw the state of the tiny teenager in more bandages and wires than I'd ever seen in my life, I prayed to God that was not my Edith. She almost looked like a child in the bed, aside from the beautiful face we knew her to have.

She wore a light blue hospital gown and a big, plush blanket. Her long hair was matted and sprawled out across the pillow she lay on. Wrapped around her head was a white bandage, stark against her dark hair. She had tubes from her nose and arm leading to oxygen and a pole beside her bed holding various bags. One thick and scary looking tube came from her belly, her hospital gown ripped a little for it to hang out, exposing her midriff. The tube was a scarlet color and connected to a machine not far away from her body.

I felt deep sorrow, knowing Eden had experienced all of this horror in the thirteen hours she was gone. She must have been scared, broken. Did she pray for her life like I had?

I wanted Eden to know she deserved every slice of beauty the world could give her. With the pain and horrors she had seen, I doubted she'd believe me. My poor best friend was swollen, bruised, and quite frankly, scary. Mom stood like a statue by the door, silent tears streaming down her face. She looked as if frozen in fear, not knowing what to do to help the girl she thought of as her own child.

I also worried about my mother. I knew she was always agonizing about her new daughter's safety. It hadn't been easy for us to save Eden. Gabriel and Gabriella Morrison kidnapping her had probably slowly deteriorated my poor mom's sanity.

I walked to Eden's side, pulled up a chair, and rested my hand gently over her thigh covered with a blanket as if she wasn't barely recognizable. Mom followed, sitting on the arm of the chair, and we talked like everything was normal to the beautiful mess in the hospital bed, our voices heavy with sadness, mixed with the beeping of the electrocardiogram.