Little Flower

Chapter 11: Shock

When Arthur and Julien found out what Wyatt told their sister, they didn't waste another second to go and check on her.

"You bastard! What did you say to her?" Victor shouted as he rushed to his brothers who were frantically pounding their fists on the door.

"I didn't mean what I said!" Wyatt made a lousy attempt at justifying his words.

"The damn key Victor!"  Arthur said. Victor carried a special master key which could unlock any lock in the Toussaint estate. Victor fished it out of suit pocket and handed it to him.

As soon as they heard the click of the door they pushed it open. The sight freezed them. They couldn't move.

They never imagined where a day would come when they would see their own flesh and blood, their own sister in a pool of blood of her own looking lifeless.

Arthur shouted a fuck.

He almost jumped on the bed and tapped her cheeks calling her name. No response. Without wasting another second Arthur picked her up his arms. Victor wrapped his clean white handkerchief around her wrist and held it tightly to stop the blood. They moved in sync.

On his way out of her room, Arthur unconsciously kicked the scissor lying on the floor. His expensive brown leather shoes were leaving footprints of blood. He never wore light colours but today he did which resulted his white shirt turning blood coloured.

Ambulance would take time and he didn't wanted to waste a single second. The engine of his car roared as Aldor, their driver speed the car through the driveway.

Victor hadn't loosened his grip on her wrist one bit while Arthur tried to wake her up. He then called the hospital and his security team to start securing parameters.

Once the car stopped people rushed to the car. As soon as Arthur got out with his sister in his arms a stretcher was brought near them. Arthur placed her on the stretcher. Victor's hand on her wrist was now replaced by nurse's.

"Save her! Fucking do something! I'll kill you if you don't save her!"
Arthur was never the one to lose his cool in the public but today he would cross any boundaries.

Without wasting another second the doctors started leading her straight to the OR.

Arthur paced outside. His security had prevented others from entering near the OR.

After the deadly wait of more than an hour, the surgeon came outside both of them stood up.

"The patient lost a lot of blood. But we got lucky that she was brought in on the right time. We still have to keep her in ICU because she flatlined twice." That made the ground slip beneath them. The fact that she had come so close to death. It made them nauseous andtheir throats constricted.

"We have performed bloos transfusion but it's still too early to tell." He paused before continuing again.

"But... However there's something else that I really need to talk to you about."

"What?" Arthur asked annoyed. All he was concerned about was what went wrong and why did his only sister do it.

"I believe this isn't the right place to talk, if you could please follow me to my cabin." Arthur told Victor to look after the formalities.

Once they entered the hospital, Arthur sat on the chair like he owned the place. Well he kind of did. He was a major share holder here.

"Mr. Toussaint I asume the patient is your sister." The doctor said.

"She is. She moved in with us a week ago."

"Well then I presume you don't know about this. Mr. Toussaint you might feel I'm over stepping my boundaries but I need to inform you regarding this. Your sister is a victim." That caught his undivided attention.

"Victim of abuse." Arthur stood up from his seat.

"What kind of bullshit is this? Do you even realise what you're saying? Who the fuck do you think you are?" He shouted.

"Please calm down. I won't lie about such a sensitive topic." The doctor took a sharp breath and closed his eyes. He didn't want to be in such a situation.

"The way she's been beaten is so cruel. Being a doctor for more than 15 years now I haven't seen something so brutal. Her stomach and her ribs are badly bruised. They seem old but haven't healed at all. Her back has belt marks, whip marks, she has been hit hard enough for blood to be drawn out. They're infected due to neglect. We even found an injury on her head. But it bleed so there won't be a haemorrhage. Scars fairly old and new, cover her whole body. And she isn't a new victim. This has been going on for years now.

Sevearly malnourished. Her skin is like a thin cover on her skeleton. Her ribs are poking out. Her limbs are thin. This happens when a child isn't given proper food since the beginning. And I was able to analyse all of this in an hour. I need to run more tests and scans. But all I can tell you right now is that she has a very long road to recover. Not just physically but even mentally."

Arthur couldn't believe what he heard. All the memories of the things he looked past flashed in front of him.

How she would always look scared, how she was scared of them, how she would try to do everything perfectly, how she would always come up with an excuse for eating less, how she would easily submit when anybody said something to her.

All these weren't signs of a healthy mental health, yet he ignored them.

When he found out about her, he didn't bother looking into her past. He was so caught up in calming his siblings down that he didn't bother to.

Who knew the mother he thought was an incarnation of an angel was the same who was the ruler of his sister's hell? His safest and the most believable guess was his mother. Ge didn't want to but his thoughts drifted there.

He was caught up in such a mess. If he tells his siblings he'll end up breaking what they believed for years now. And if he didn't bring Fiorella the justice she deserves, he would break down himself.

He decided to find out some more, maybe it wasn't his mom who did it, he thought.

He called his office, specifically the head of his IT department of the mafia. He sent him a picture of Fiorella and demanded any photo, any footage, any records, medical or criminal, just anything.

"So what did he say? Will she be alright?" Victor asked in anticipation.

No matter how much they pretended, all of them had developed a soft spot for her in their stone cold hearts.

Arthur starred at his brother, contemplating his next actions.