Free Sense of Rumor (Mount Faith Series: Book 6) by Brenda Barrett Page A

services. After the first visit, my mom decided that she had had enough of America and decided to come to Jamaica. She packed us up with one measly little suitcase a piece. She had one, Vanley had one, and I had one. My grandmother had a house out here and willed it to my Mom before she died, so we moved there."
    Taj steepled his fingers, listening as Arnella painted a picture of her childhood. She was talking as if some of the details were long forgotten and she was bringing them back to mind.
    She rested back in her chair and crossed her legs. "I had met Uncle Ryan in the past, you know, when Daddy was alive. Uncle Ryan used to live in Washington State. When we came to Jamaica, he was already out here. He thought we were just staying for vacation. He had no idea that my Mom was fleeing social services and the IRS and imminent institutionalization in a mental hospital."
    She laughed dryly. "He found out, much later, what was going on and he sent Vanley to boarding school. My mother sobered up for a while, so I was left with her, but everything went down hill after that. She can't remember all the things she did to me because excessive alcohol abuse can cause holes in somebody's memory, but I remember. She used to starve me and beat me. One day she locked me in my room and forgot about me. I had to climb from the second story window. I was about ten…I ate out of the neighbor's garbage. I thought I was covering for her by not saying a word about how bad it was, not to my brother nor my uncle."
    Taj just nodded. He didn't need to prompt her to talk. She just wanted to get things off her chest it seemed.
    "I went looking for food one night, in the town, I was twelve. I was almost raped by a taxi driver. I am not new to sexual assaults. A stranger saved my butt then. I don't know why this current one should bother me so much. Yesterday I almost killed the guy that did this to me. He claimed that they raped me because of a dare."
    "Do you want me to report this to the police?" Taj asked gently.
    "I am not sure." Arnella shook her head. "I don't want this to be some big public thing and then there is no justice."
    "They could do it to someone else," Taj said gently.
    Arnella closed her eyes and leaned back in the chair. "I don't want to be a spectacle. I just want to be left alone. I feel so tired…"
    Taj watched her for a minute, waiting for her to speak again, but when he heard a light snore, he smiled. He rarely had patients that fell asleep on him. He woke her up, "Arnella there is a room down the hall where you can sleep."
    Arnella nodded dizzily. "Okay." He walked her to it and she fell on the bed. Soon she was off again. Taj told the nurses not to disturb her until evening.
    Arnella woke up groggily to the ringing of her cell phone. At first, she had no idea where she was, and then she realized that she was still at the Psych Center. She looked on the call display. It was Tracy.
    "Where are you, Nella? I heard the strangest news from David that you attacked him in class yesterday. Is it true?"
    "Yes," Arnella's voice sounded husky and ill used, even to her ears. "I should have wrung his scrawny neck."
    "But why?" Tracy asked puzzled. "I don't know you to be an angry person."
    "He drugged me at your house and had sex with me without my consent." Arnella said sitting up in the bed and looking around.
    "Are you sure Nella?" Tracy asked doubtfully. "You said this already but I can't really think of when they would have done that at the party."
    Arnella stretched and put her feet on the floor. She yawned. "I know what I went through; I was not hallucinating. David was the main one in this whole sordid affair. I am going to get him."
    "Now Nella, remember, nothing really bothers you." Tracy had a smug sound in her voice.
    It made Arnella pause. It was almost as if Tracy was happy that she had been assaulted. She straightened her clothes. "Well, yipee for you. This one really bothers me."
    "You sound like you need a little