Drago:
Everything just got fucked up, again. We can't catch a break and have everything go smoothly.
I honestly never would have expected her to absolutely lose her shit at seeing the Stoicas.
We had been trying to think of a good way to honor them for months. We thought, hey, let's bring them here to see her again. They were ecstatic.
They were supposed to be honored guests at the Royal family's table, so much for that shit.
She looked so incredibly beautiful in her dress, and I knew she'd designed it. It's been a dance these last few months with her. We had a ton of issues with her dragon and our dragons. We were racking our brains on how to fix it.
Then she decided that the only thing we could do was stop denying them. That way, they would stop blowing up together.
I wasn't foolishly thinking this just fixed everything. I knew it didn't. I did hope that, with us showing her gentle, loving care, she would become more receptive, but she hasn't.
I knew she felt like she was surrendering to us. That wasn't at all how we saw it. I had also heard her refer to herself in very derogatory ways, from a whore, to our pet, an incubator, a walking womb. We tried to refute each of them, but it didn't stop her from saying or thinking them.
She still has a very hostile relationship with anyone from town. She has completely shocked the shit out of quite a few people. We're not sure how to help with that either.
We brought in a high-risk pregnancy doctor here. Her name is Dr. Surenka. We built a clinic for her, and she has a setup in our clinic downstairs.
She has been worried about Ria's weight. The babies are doing great, but Ria keeps losing weight. Dr. Surenka has been giving her stronger nausea medicine, and she's been hooking her up to IVs to supplement her with much needed vitamins and liquids. We have started making calorie-dense shakes, and she has done better with them. We are supposed to find out the genders next week. Ria, however, refuses to have anything to do with the pregnancy or the rape babies, as she calls them. It guts me, and I can't fix it.
So, I was looking forward to tonight, hoping it would be a positive experience. Then I felt her stiffen and her hand start shaking. She stood stoic and coiled tightly beside me until they spoke to her.
Then she lost it and lunged for them. The bracelet would have prevented her from harming them, but she could have accidentally hurt herself or them. I issued a comand as the dominate male. I have hardly ever had to do that. I saw her rage at me controlling her.
By the time I got her seated, the atmosphere of the entire night had been altered. The Stoicas were generally confused and distressed by her distress, her description of our lives, and her pregnancy.
I let her move and wasn't surprised she headed for the bathroom. Being pregnant, she has to head there a lot. I could tell she wanted a moment alone, so I figured that would be a good thing. Let her have a little breathing room.
She didn't come back. We kept waiting, then got concerned. Finally, Natalia went to the bathroom to check on her. She wasn't there.
We started trying to find her. She's limited on how far she can go, and she's not trying to leave. If that were her intention, the bracelet would have stopped her.
We eventually had members of the catering team tell us she left out the kitchen back door.
So Ash and I got the car and went after her. We found her walking down the side of the road. She was completely oblivious. She didn't acknowledge me in the slightest; in fact, it was like she wasn't even seeing me.
This reminded me of that very first day. I grabbed her to make her stop walking. She looked at my hands and kept trying to keep walking, like she wasn't processing anything that was happening. That's when I got really scared.
I picked her up and got in the car. We rushed her home, and I called Dr. Surenka and Cole to meet us there. When we got there, we immediately took her downstairs.
When Dr. Surenka got there, she removed her dress but found no evidence of trauma. She got her in a gown and hooked her up to all the monitors. Cole got there and helped start running tests. There were no indications of what might have happened. They were worried about her responses, so they decided to sedate her, hoping it might help her mind snap out of whatever was happening.
It had been hours, and we had all changed clothes and were camped out around the room where she was. Everyone in the house was aware of what was happening, but I was still surprised to see Constantine enter, and even more surprised at the look on his face.
I stood up and headed towards him when he said, "I know what happened and about the missing time. I think I also know what might have caused this."
I stopped and just stood there, but he wasn't done.
"How about we set up a table in the next room so we can all sit down? This explanation is going to take a while."
I nodded and called Victor to have a table and chairs brought down along with refreshments.
After about 30 minutes of activity, we had it set up. Then we all found coffee and a snack and took a seat.
Constantine looked at everyone and set a folder on the table.
"I am just going to go over everything. Then we can discuss it from there."
We all nodded.
"I had already told you the basics of her dad's death, her mom remarried a Braun Zavitnik. Then her mother died when she was 11, and Zavitnik got custody. Then, when she was 14, her stepfather was arrested, and she entered foster care. I couldn't find much information about the arrest, and I was sure the records had been deliberately erased. Well, after tons of searching, I found other records around her stepfather. I found other kids who were part of his arrest. I finally tracked one down and convinced her to talk to me."
I watch as Constantine takes a drink of coffee and struggles to keep it together.
"The woman I spoke to was Heather Mitchell. She was 9 when Braun Zavitnik was arrested for Trafficking, Porn, Endangerment, Kidnapping, Sadistic Enslavement, various tortures, actually the list is extensive."
He paused and then pushed on, "Apparently, when Collette Dragoi married Braun Zavitnik, he began giving her narcotics; they supposed this was to have full access to Ria. She lived in that house with that monster for 10 years. Heather stated that Ria had often tried to put herself between them and the men, as Braun had a whole group. That Braun seemed especially sadistic in his tortures of Ria. So, at 14, when he was arrested, she was placed in foster care."
Constantine got up, refilled his coffee, and then sat back down.
"I found some reports about one foster father and foster brother that listed offenses they perpetuated on fosters in their house. It seems they assaulted several girls who were placed in their home. There's no report with Ria's name, but if someone scrubbed the stuff about Braun, most likely they would have erased that, too. The next thing I finally found was a ticket for vagrancy when she would have been 15, so she was living on the streets. Then she is placed in foster care with Elizabeth Drayton when she's 17, so my guess is there's no records cause CPS didn't know where she was, and she lived on the streets, probably moving around."
I'm speechless just staring at him and so is everyone else.
"I'm not done." I see him struggling, and it really worries me.
"I found a news article. It had been accessed via the party's Wi-Fi address. It was an article talking about the sad, repeated tragedies that had befallen a foster family. The first was the tragic auto accident death of Adriana Nicoletta Dragoi. It talked about the foster sister Cin, or Cinnamon Sugar, not believing she was dead and trying to prove it, which ended with her tangled up with a violent drug dealer, who then killed her. The foster mother, Elizabeth, had an emotional breakdown, causing the foster boys, brothers Elijah and Marcus Calibrea, to be removed from her home and returned to their birth mother, a repeat drug offender. There was a fire at the residence, resulting in the death of Marcus and the mother. Elija survived but was badly burned. Elizabeth has moved from the area and suffers physically, so she will no longer ever foster, and she has fallen off the grid."
We all just sat there. How could so many things go wrong in one family, stemming from an initial tragedy, leading to so many more? I knew what she thought. If she hadn't "died," nothing else would have happened. Cin wouldn't have gone looking for proof Ria was alive, so she wouldn't have been tangled up with the man who killed her. Elizabeth would never have had a reason for an emotional meltdown, and there would never have been a reason for the boys to be sent back to their mother. I could see her think exactly that and place the blame squarely upon her own shoulders.
Fuck what could we do? She needed help, but what should we do?
Dr. Surenka said, "I know a therapist that I was colleagues with, maybe we can get one here, as you got me here?"
"Give us the information." That was all I said. What else was there to say? We would do absolutely anything to help her through this.