Chapter 2 - THE DEBT THAT NEVER DIEDAlexander didn’t tell me everything that night.
Later, I would understand why.
Some truths are so heavy that placing them in someone’s hands all at once can feel like another kind of violence.
Instead, he asked whether I wanted a doctor.
I said yes.
He asked whether there was anyone I trusted enough to call.
I thought about my mother, who had died two years earlier.
I thought about friends I hadn’t spoken to since my wedding.
I thought about the woman I’d been before Derek.
Then I shook my head.
“No one.”
Alexander looked at me for a long moment.
“Then we’ll start there.”
A woman named Dr.
Helena Price arrived twenty minutes later.
She had silver-threaded dark hair, kind brown eyes, and a leather medical bag that looked older than I was.
She examined my heel, cleaned the cut, and wrapped it in a soft bandage.
When she reached for my wrist, I flinched.
She stopped immediately.
“May I?”
I nodded.
Her fingers were gentle.
She examined the red marks around my skin.
Then she looked at me.
May you like
“How long has this been happening?”
I stared at the floor.
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