THE DON'S CAPTIVE MISTRESS

Okay

HAZEL

I hadn’t touched the food or done anything except, of course, pee and then crawl right back into bed. I was lying there, staring at nothing, when Angela walked forward and a woman in a white coat followed behind her.

I guess Angela hadn’t listened to me at all. She’d gone ahead and called the doctor.

“You didn’t have your breakfast?” she asked, giving me a look that felt like a quiet reprimand.

Normally, I would’ve snapped something back at her. Something sharp, defensive. But I didn’t even feel like doing that. I just stayed quiet.

Angela came forward, took the untouched tray, and said, “ I’ll go and get you your breakfast.” Then she walked out, leaving me alone with the doctor.

The woman stepped closer. “Hello. My name is Irene. I’m Dr Sylvester, the famiglia's doctor assistant, and I would like to look over your bruises, to see the damage and whether you need to go and have extra medical attention.”

I shrugged. “Okay.”

“If you don’t mind,” she said, already moving to open her bag. She handed me something that looked like a paper gown. “Could you change and put this on? I want to make sure you’re comfortable while I check the bruises and cuts.”

I took it without a word, went into the bathroom, changed, and came back.

Then the exam began. She directed me part by part, my upper body, my back, my legs. Her hands were clinical, careful, but every now and then when she pressed somewhere too tender, I hissed under my breath. She wrote things down without comment, flipping pages, touching, checking, writing again.

By the time she finished, Angela was already back, standing by the door. Watching the doctor. Waiting. Her face was unreadable, just… steady. Present.

The doctor packed up her tools, placed everything neatly into her bag, then handed Angela two blister packs of pills....not to me. To Angela.

As if I were a child and she was my mother.

“So what’s wrong? Is she okay?” Angela asked, her voice low and even.

Dr Irene smiled a little. “Yes. She’s okay. There’s no internal—” she paused, searching for the words, “internal bleeding or internal harm. She’s going to need to take this,” she said, pointing to one of the blister packs, “for pain and this....” she said pointing at the other "This will help heal quickly and get rid of the bruises faster "

Angela nodded once.

The woman zipped her bag, gave me a polite nod, and murmured, “Get well soon.”

I didn’t bother answering her.

Dr Irene walked out, the door closing softly behind her. The door closed behind her, and the room felt quiet again. Angela stood there for a moment, still holding the pills the doctor had handed to her, her expression unreadable.

“Since that’s done and you need to drink these pills for quick recovery, let’s thank God there is nothing life-threatening." Angela sighed after a moment.

"I’m going to bring you breakfast, and this time you're going to drink it, and then you're going to take the pills. Okay?” she asked.

I just shrugged as I fell back on the bed.

So she went away, and as she did, there was a knock on the door.

“Oh my God, you’ve been coming in without knocking, and now you’re going to start knocking?” I snapped, but the door opened slowly, and the person on the other side wasn’t someone I expected.

It was Nico.

I found myself quickly sitting up, righting myself as I stared at him. He looked… bad. It looked like he hadn’t slept, and he was wearing the same clothes from yesterday.

“Can I help you?” I snapped at him.

“How are you doing? ......How are you feeling?” he asked. “I asked Angela what the doctor said, but she wouldn’t answer me. She seemed to be mad at me for some reason,” he said, trying to smile, but it came out more like a grimace than a smile.

“Well, I'm okay. Just going to have to drink those pills prescribed by the doctor, and I guess I’m going to be fine.”

“That’s good,” he said, nodding. Then, “Do you need anything?”

“I’m okay, Nico. I just want to be alone, really.”

“Okay. I understand,” he said nodding.

And just then, Angela walked in, gave Nico this angry look, which I had never seen on her before, and then set the tray down. Nico looked at her, then looked down, and walked out the door, closing it behind him.

Angela went on dealing with the food situation, putting the tray on top of me and then standing over me like a prison warden as she said,

“Okay, start eating. I’m not going to spoon-feed you today. You look healthy enough to me.”

She wasn’t saying it cruelly. It was just… Angela. So I started eating slowly as she stood there watching me, and I don’t know, it's kind of awkward to eat in front of someone staring directly at you.

So I said, “Nico looks like shit.”

“Yeah,” Angela said. The only thing she said.

“It seems like he hasn’t changed his clothes,” I said again, I guess just trying to fill the silence.

“Yeah. He’s been outside that door since yesterday. The maids bring him food and everything there. He has to ask someone to watch the door so he can go to the toilet. So… yeah. He’s been there since yesterday.”

“Why?” I asked, surprised.

“It’s his job to protect you, and he failed at that spectacularly,” Angela answered.

Then she stopped staring down at me and started walking around the room, tidying this, tidying that, arranging things, moving things, almost like she was looking for something to do. And I guess I couldn't blame her. We’ve never been friends. We really don't have anything to talk about.

I finished my food. She gave me the pills. I drank them. She took the tray, and she left.

So the days went on that way, Angela fussing over me.... Well, not really fussing. She just did the needful.

She made sure I had eaten, that I had taken my pills, and that I had taken a bath. She made sure to put whatever herbal medicine she was putting into my water. She was… extra soft this time, in her own Angela way. And the whole time, no one came to see me.

Well—except Nico, of course.

He still came every day. I don't know… to greet me? To check how I was doing? Maybe just to make sure I was still in here and that he wasn’t standing guard over an empty door.

And that was it. Axel didn’t come to see me and I never heard a word from him.