Free Sound Proof (Save Me #5) by Katheryn Kiden, Wendi Temporado Page B

Roger grips my shoulder, thanking me, and follows behind them. I don’t know how long I sit there watching Willow, pain washing over her face every time she tries to wake up. It never lasts long before giving in and letting the drugs pull her back under, but each time, it’s enough to make my chest ache.
    When Willow’s eyes finally stay open for longer than ten seconds, I slide my chair as close to the bed as I can without hitting it and page the nurse.
    “Hey, babe,” I whisper.
    Her face scrunches up, tears leaking out of the corner of her eyes. “Mom? Sage?”
    “Sage just came out of surgery. Your mom went to check on her.” I try to keep my voice low and calm so she doesn’t freak out.
    “Is she gonna be OK?” she mumbles.
    “Yeah of course she is.” As gently as I can, I pick her unbroken hand up in mine and squeeze her fingers lightly. “Willow, can you tell me what happened?”
    She picks a spot on the wall and stares at it as she forces herself to stay awake and tells me what went on throughout the day. “Max left us in the car when we got to the bar. It was so hot. He left the keys in it though so I kept turning it on and running the air conditioner for Sage. When he finally came back out, he was trashed. He hauled me out of the car and started screaming at me, kept telling me how I was just going to become a whore like my mom.”
    She stops talking when the nurse finally walks into the room and starts checking her over. My fingers wrap around the bed rail, squeezing tight enough that I think I might break it just so I don’t go fight my way into Max’s room so I can kill him myself.
    When the nurse finally leaves, Willow starts back into her story, and she tries to fight off the fact that the meds are trying to make her go back to sleep.
    “He threw me into the side of the car and Sage started screaming and crying. I tried to tell her to stop, that everything was going to be all right, but she wouldn’t stop. He dragged her out too and threw her seat across the parking lot and laughed when it broke. I pushed Sage behind me when he wasn’t looking and he grabbed my hair and started dragging me around the car. He shoved me in behind the wheel and told me if I didn’t drive I was going to regret it. I told him no, to get a cab, but that only made him angrier.” She drags in a deep breath, her eyes flicking over to mine to see if I’m paying attention still. Truth is, I don’t think I can move away from her right now even if I need to. “He climbed in the back where Sage should have been and sprawled across the entire seat, so I told her to climb in next to me. I buckled her up the best I could, I swear. I did everything just like the driver’s ed teacher taught me but that car came out of nowhere and I didn’t have time to stop. It’s all my fault,” Willow chokes out. “I should have stood my ground. I knew something bad was going to happen.”
    “Hey, hey, hey, it’s not your fault. Don’t ever think that any of this was your fault.” I try to calm her down, to drill it into her head that she did everything she could to protect herself and her sister, but it only makes her cry harder. Her tears kill me just as much, if not more, than Payton’s did. “You guys are going to be just fine.”
    I’m about to text Payton and tell her that Willow is awake, but she passes back out before I have the chance. So instead, I leave her alone with Sage and sit there going over everything Willow just told me, and try to keep myself here with her instead of downstairs earning a murder rap and a new reason to search me on Google.
    I must fall asleep at some point because the next thing I know, fingers are sliding down my cheek. I force my eyes open and as soon as I do, Payton drops down into my lap and buries her face in my neck. I wrap my arms around her, pulling her as close to me as I can possibly get her. If anyone saw us, and didn’t know the situation, it would look like we were together