Read and feedback as I write a novel: Imperception – Chapter 49

Chapter 49: Dee

The days spent in the hospital had proven hugely restorative for Dee.  She had a feeling of purpose that had been absent from her life for as long as she could remember.  She felt that it was her job to keep Isla and Milly safe.  She didn’t know how but she knew that she must.  It was one of the reasons that she rarely left their bedsides; she felt that her role was to watch over these two broken beings and to guard them whilst they healed.  As her own mind settled and became more free, she found that she was able to begin to turn her attention to more practical matters.  What were they going to do?  

None of the three of them had a home to which they could go, or at least not for long.  Dee’s home would no longer be her own within days and surely Isla and Milly could not return to their home after what had happened?  Dee imagined that it was also highly unlikely that they’d want to, even if it were possible.  If, for example, Simon were in prison and the house were free of him, Dee was sure that neither Milly nor her mother would welcome the idea of returning to a house where every corner they turned brought them more reminders of the monster who had beaten them that night.  Dee wondered what Milly would recall of the incident – her emotional healing would surely take longer than any physical healing that had to take place. 

How do you ever get over an incident like this – or maybe she already had?  Dee suddenly found herself wondering whether Simon had been abusive to Milly in the past.  Strangely it had not occurred to her before – she has assumed, perhaps because of Milly’s endlessly sunny disposition and apparent lack of injuries, that she had remained unharmed by her father, with the full force of his abuse being aimed at her mother.   But perhaps she was wrong.  Why would Milly be lying next to her mother in a hospital gown if her father never hurt her; what could possibly have been different this time?  

Dee hoped with all her heart this was the first time Milly had been hurt by her father and she was determined to think of a way to ensure that it would, without doubt, be the last. 

[View all chapters shared so far here]

Thank you for feeding back each day. I’m building in your edits and suggestions to the version held on my local machine so the initial raw version will remain here. When I’ve got questions, I’m going to ask them each day – don’t feel obliged to answer them, but if you’re happy to they’ll help me as I try to craft the story. If you have questions or observations I’d be keen to hear them too.