Belonging

Chapter 6

"Let me return to my family! I don't want to stay here!! I belong with my family!!" She seemed broken, battered and exhausted. Both physically and emotionally.

"Your family?" Clayton scoffed. He was well aware that he had lost all control over his temper. Victoria had ignored him and cowered away from his touch for two days and he needed to vent."The same family that put you up for sale to clear their drinking debts?"

"Don't you insult my family!" She screamed.

Turning on his heel, he bolted to his office and yanked out the folder containing all the evidence he needed. Clayton quickly rushed back to where he left an astounded Victoria staring out in space, immersed in her thoughts.

"Tell me this is fake." He thrusted the flyer containing the advertisement toward her. Tentatively Victoria reached out and took ahold of the paper Clayton had so unceremoniously thrust at her.

What the paper contained shocked her beyond words. She traced her trembling fingers on the paper that contained an image of her and an offer stating she was for sale. A sob escaped her mouth as she recalled that she had been the one type out the text on the flyer. Her father had come up and asked her to type up an advertisement for someone about to sell their dog. She felt numb. Her mind refused to accept the evidence in front of her.

"Please tell me this isn't true."

"I'm sorry you had to find out this way." Clayton detested how pale and frail she seemed at the moment.

"This can't be true." She swayed as she tried to step towards him.

Rushing forward, Clayton steadied her before she fell. Slipping an arm under her knees, he lifted her into his arms and as quickly as he could carried her up to his room. She needed rest, this whole ordeal was too much for her. As he lay her down, he smoothed down her hair and placed a lingering kiss on her forehead.

"I'm sorry." He whispered into her hair.

Reaching behind him, Clayton grabbed his mobile telephone and dailed up his doctor and ordered him to come to his house as quickly as he could if he wished to keep his head attached to his body.

"There's no need for that. I'll be fine." Victoria reasoned. "I feel bad enough already that I've inconvenienced you so much."

"Inconvenienced me? I don't follow." Clayton knit his eyebrows as he tried to understand her statement.

"You got dragged into this mess. You had to spend you mone-" Suddenly Victoria sat upright. "Oh Dear. How much did you pay?"

"For?" He was finding it hard to keep up with her haphazard thoughts.

"For me. You bought me didn't you." A bleak and lonely emotion had replaced the twinkle previously in her eyes.

"I've called the doctor, he should be here to check up on you soon." He avoided the conversation, and headed out the room. He had barely made it off the bed when two small, soft hands latched onto his arm holding him in place.

"I need to know." She pleaded.

"Ten."

"Ten...hundred?" She guessed.

Clayton wanted to avoid her the pain if this entire conversation, but this seemed to be something she was not going to get rid of easily.

"Ten minutes till the doctor gets here." Prying his arm out of Victoria's hands, he rushed out of the room. There were certain things she didn't need to bother herself with and her family was one of them.

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"How is she?" Clayton questioned the doctor. He had been answering an important phone call as the doctor was checking Victoria. The only reason Dr. James had been allowed in the same room as Victoria in Clayton's absence was for he was a trusted friend.

"She's just in shock. I've monitored her vitals for the past hour and I am convinced that she needs rest and lots of it. She's been working herself too hard these past few days."

"I'll have her on house arrest for the next month." Clayton gritted out, angry with himself for not finding her and bringing her to him sooner.

"Good God, I told you she needs rest. Not to be mummified." Exclaimed the Doctor. "Give her a day or so of absolute rest. And then she should be good to go."

Thanking the doctor, Clayton quickly saw him out and rushed over to Victoria.

"Do you feel any better? You've been working yourself too hard! I'm not letting you go to college till I deem you rested enough. Don't you even dare to overwork yourself again. Am I understood?"

"W-what?"

"No college till you get better." Clayton couldn't bear the thought of his Victoria being anything other than whole and healthy.

"B-but yo-" She protested.

"That's final."