Ian took a hold of me and sat me up. “He’s asleep, Rory. Let’s step out for a moment.”
He handed me a tissue, took my hand, and led me out into the hall. We walked around until he found an empty room. He led me inside, shut the door, and then wrapped his arms around me as tightly as he could. He buried his face into my neck and whispered, “I’m so sorry that you have to go through this. But, I don’t want you to worry. I’m taking care of this for you. Stephen will be well taken care of and you can visit him every chance you get.”
“I can’t have you pay for it, Ian. You don’t even know him. You barely know me.”
He broke our embrace and stared at me. “You’re my friend, and I help my friends. I’m helping you and Stephen and there will be no more discussion about it. Do you understand me, Rory?”
I rolled my eyes at him because once again, he was using that commanding tone. “Yes, I understand.”
“Don’t roll your eyes at me. As cute as it makes you look, I can’t stand that.” He smiled.
I sighed and told him we better head back to the room. Stephen was still asleep when we walked in. Dr. Michaels came in behind us and went over the paperwork with me. He said that he was going to keep Stephen here overnight and that he’d be transferred to Hudson Rock tomorrow morning.
“You may come here tomorrow morning and ride with him to Hudson Rock so you can say goodbye and see for yourself that he’ll be well taken care of.”
“We’ll be taking him in my limo so Rory can spend some time with him,” Ian said.
I took the pen from the doctor and signed the papers to commit my twin brother to a psychiatric hospital and cried while doing it.
“I know this is hard, but it’s the best thing for him,” Dr. Michaels said as he put his hand on my shoulder and then left the room. I looked over at Stephen as he opened his eyes.
“Don’t cry, Rory. It’ll be okay. You can’t take care of me anymore and I know that now.”
“I’m sorry, Stephen. I have to go now, but I’ll see you in the morning,” I said as I kissed his head.
“Bye, Rory.”
I ran out of the room as fast as I could and down the hallway until I found the exit. I ran down the sidewalk. I wouldn’t stop running. I couldn’t stop running. Ian caught up with me and grabbed me. He held me so tight that I couldn’t move.
“Stop, Rory! You need to stop, right now!” he whispered in my ear.
We were near a park and people were watching.
“People are staring. Now, I’m going to let go of you, and I’m going to take your hand, and we’re going to go sit under that tree over there. Okay?”
I nodded my head, and Ian did exactly what he said he would. He took my hand and led me to the big oak tree. As we sat down underneath it, Ian looked at me and smiled. “Have you calmed down?”
I nodded and laid my head on his shoulder.
“Talk to me, Rory. Tell me what’s going on in that pretty little head of yours.”
“I let my mom and my brother down.”
“How did you let them down? None of this is your fault. I heard Stephen say that he didn’t mean to hurt you or your mom. What did he do?”
I took in a sharp breath. The air around us was getting cool. “One night, I was on the couch watching TV and my mom was in the kitchen with Stephen. All of a sudden, I heard her scream and a crash on the floor. I jumped up from the couch and Stephen was standing over her, holding a bloody knife. He had stabbed her in the leg. The way he looked at her was so blank, like he wasn’t even there. She started to back away from him, and I could see the fear in her eyes. I told her that I was calling 911 and she screamed at me not to. She told me to take the knife from him. I remember standing there, shaking uncontrollably. I took tiny steps towards him as I asked him to drop the knife. I’ll never forget the look in his eyes when he turned his head and looked at me. He dropped the knife and curled up in a ball on the floor next to my mom. She said that if we told anyone what Stephen had done, they’d take him away from us and she couldn’t let that happen. So, she took him to the doctor to have him evaluated and told them about his hallucinations and conversations with himself and they diagnosed him with schizophrenia.”
“Christ, Rory,” Ian said as he laid me down so I was on my back and my head was in his lap.
I looked up at him as he stared down at me and gently wiped the tears from my eyes with his thumb. “I have no words. I think that once we get Stephen situated and you know he’s going to be okay, you can start to heal physically and emotionally. What about your aunt? Does she know any of this?”
My eyes left his as I looked down and started picking at the blades of grass. “Yes. She came over right after it happened and helped my mom take care of the wound. It was only a few months later that she passed away from pneumonia. My aunt didn’t want anything to do with us. She said that Stephen was evil and needed to be locked away. Personally, I think she was afraid of him.”
“That’s understandable, considering what he did to your mom,” Ian said as he played with the strands of my hair.
“The night my mom died, she called for me to come in her room. When I went in there, she told me to sit down next to her on the bed. She reached up and put her hand on the side of my face.
“‘My beautiful Aurora. I need you to promise me something. I need you to promise that you’ll always take care of Stephen and protect him. If you don’t protect your brother, they’ll take him away from you and he needs you. He’ll never survive by himself. The two of you need to stay together. Can you do that for Mommy?’
“I remember sitting there as she stared at me, begging me to promise her. Damn it, I was only ten years old,” I said as I sat up.
Ian pulled me into his chest and held my head against him. “Shh…it’s okay. You never broke your promise to her and you still haven’t. You’re getting Stephen the help he needs. She’d be so proud of you for the way you took care of him all these years.”
“That’s the reason my aunt wanted nothing to do with either of us. But she was so desperate for money to feed her drug addiction.”
I broke free from his embrace and stared into his eyes, which reminded me so much of the blue ocean water. “Now you know. You know everything and the reason why I’m not broken, just shattered.”
I swore I saw a tear in Ian’s eye when he turned his head and looked away. “Come on. I’m taking you back to your place to pack an overnight bag. You’re staying at my house tonight. I don’t think you should be alone.”