My stepbrother screamed, \u201cChoose how you pay or get out!\u201d while I was sitting in the gynecologist\u2019s office with stitches still fresh. When I refused, he struck me so hard I crashed to the floor, pain flaring through my ribs. Then he curled his lip and said, \u201cYou think you\u2019re too good for it?\u201d just as the police arrived, horrified.\u201cChoose how you pay or get out!\u201d my stepbrother yelled as I sat in the gynecologist\u2019s office, stitches still fresh.Silence dropped over the room so suddenly that I could hear the paper sheet beneath my hands wrinkle. I sat on the edge of the examination table, one hand pressed to my lower stomach, the other clutching the paper gown shut over my knees. The fluorescent lights made the room feel painfully clean, painfully white, and far too public for what had just happened.\u201cNo,\u201d I said.The word sounded small, but it was the first complete word I had ever said to him without attaching an apology to it.Derek Vance\u2019s expression shifted. His smug smile disappeared. He glanced toward the door, then back to me, his jaw moving as if he were grinding broken glass between his teeth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou think you\u2019re too good for it?\u201d he sneered.Dr. Amelia Rhodes moved between us. She was in her forties, with a composed face, gray-blond hair twisted into a tight bun, and an ID badge clipped to her white coat. \u201cSir, you need to leave this room now.\u201dDerek gave a single laugh. \u201cThis is family business.\u201d\u201cI said leave.\u201dHe moved before I could even brace myself.His hand struck my face so hard that the room tilted sideways. My shoulder slammed into the metal step beneath the exam table. Then my ribs hit the floor, and a sharp burst of pain ripped through me. I tasted blood. Somewhere over me, a nurse screamed.Derek loomed above me, breathing heavily. \u201cShe lies. She always lies.\u201dI folded around my ribs, trying not to sob, because crying had always made him angrier at home. But this was not home. This was a clinic in Columbus, Ohio, with hallway cameras, nurses at the front desk, and a doctor who had already examined the bruises I had tried to dismiss.Dr. Rhodes seized the wall phone. \u201cSecurity. Now. And call 911.\u201dDerek turned toward her. \u201cYou don\u2019t know what she did.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My stepbrother screamed, \u201cChoose how you pay or get out!\u201d while I was sitting in the gynecologist\u2019s office with stitches still fresh. When I refused, he struck… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":53388,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"views":40,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=53387"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53387\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53389,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53387\/revisions\/53389"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/53388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=53387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=53387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=53387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}