Taking Care of Vivian

Scarlett's POV

I barely slept last night, but being with Liam helped me rest a little better than I would have otherwise. However, since I didn't receive any updates from either Oliver or Roman, I was much more worried.

The breakfast table was set, but I could barely serve myself or eat. My mind was elsewhere. Liam, noticing my distraction, placed a piece of toast on my plate.

"You need to eat," he tried to encourage me.

I raised my head to look at him; everything seemed a bit blurry. I found it hard to focus my gaze on anything. I let out a soft grunt and shook my head.

"Heavens!" I said and stood up.

I was not the type of person who just remained still and idle like an idiot. I didn’t have much to do with regards Vivian or her situation, nor anything that was currently happening, but I could do much more than what I was currently doing, which felt like nothing. I took a deep breath, getting my emotions sorted and under control.

"Hey..." Liam called to me and hugged me.

I smiled, returning the hug, but soon moved away, giving him a quick kiss.

"I'm fine..." I smiled. "It doesn't help to worry about things that I have no control over."

"Finally!" Cristine was the first to speak. "You were scaring me!"

I looked at my friend and chuckled.

"I'm back, come on... Finish breakfast and meet me in the office. I need to start giving you lessons on my company," I said determinedly. I grabbed some toast, put it on my plate, and took a glass of juice.

I looked at Liam again, who wore a worried expression on his face.

"I'm better, I promise." I told him.

I could see him relax a little at my words as he sat back down. Cristine did the same, but she put a few more things on her plate and followed me. We found an empty office and went inside. Once inside, Cristina closed the door with her foot.

"This apartment is bigger than my, Vivian’s, and John’s houses all combined," Cris said excitedly. "Am I going to have a place like this too?" She asked me.

"Not right now. I don’t even have an apartment like this," I told her laughing. I put my plate on the work table in front of me and turned on the computer.

"Alright! Then let's work to get to have this here!" Cristine said enthusiastically as she joined me by pulling a chair closer and sitting down next to me.

"That's the spirit!" I said as I opened the company management programs on the computer.

The good thing about Cristine was that she was one of the few people who managed to take a technical course, which she did whilst going through high school. She is very intelligent, so she really was the best option to be my associate.

I started showing her all the company information, how the programs worked, how payments were made, how our HR worked being outsourced, as well as the accounting, but there were many things, besides these, that required management.

I also opened my emails, showing her the almost infinite list of emails that needed to be responded to on a daily basis.

The morning passed this way even though I couldn’t help checking my phone from time to time, but I never saw any notifications or updates from Oliver or Roman, so we continued with the training through the rest of the morning. The work went somewhat slower as I had to explain everything to Cristine in exact detail. We found a new notebook in one of the drawers, and Cris used it to take notes as we went.

After some time, we heard a knock on the door.

"Come in," I said, raising my gaze as Jasmine appeared in the doorway.

"The teams are arriving... But it seems some of them are injured," Jasmine reported.

"Any fatalities?" I asked.

"Sadly, yes. From both from Oliver's Roman's teams."

I took a deep steadying breath. I never, for a moment, imagined that things would work out perfectly.

"They'll be here soon. Once they are here and settled, we get all the details from them." Jasmine said.

I nodded in acknowledgement.

"I understand." I got up from the chair as Cris did the same.

"Lunch?" I asked.

"Will be ready in about half an hour," Jasmine replied.

All three of us left the office and went to the living room. I walked straight to Liam, who was sitting on the couch, and took a seat next to him, letting my head rest on his shoulder.

"Did you have your toast this morning?" Liam asked me.

"Yes, as well as a piece of the pie Cris brought," I replied.

"Finally, I'm going to meet your mysterious friends," Liam joked, and I smiled.

"They aren’t that mysterious. Just a little," I said.

"Mysterious? You didn't talk about us?" Cris commented in mock anger. I knew her well enough to know that she would just be joking.

"I didn't, you were my network of spies within the pack... Why would I go around talking about you?" I replied just as mockingly. She walked around the couch and took a seat opposite from us and threw a paper ball at me.

"How do you have one of those?" I asked surprised, picking up the paper ball, tossing it right back at her.

"Well, there was a lot of paper there, just crumple some up and put them in your pocket!" Cris commented and aimed to throw the ball at me again.

Other people might find it strange that we were so calm and even joking, but it was a habit learned when living the types of communities that we had to grow up in. We had to learn to lighten the mood to help us not to worry too much.

I caught the paper ball in the air this time and smiled, throwing it back at her. We kept tossing the paper ball back and forth until the door finally opened. Roman entered with John beside him, followed by Gabriel and Vivian.

The four of them were relatively well-dressed, wearing suits and formal clothes, which was obviously to blend in and not scare the residents. Another man entered just behind them,  his body language and the bag he carried clearly indicated that he was a doctor.

I stood up and finally managed to breathe easier, seeing that they were, at least, alive.

"The rooms are this way," Klaus said and directed them to the hallway. Everything was probably arranged ahead of their arrival.

Vivian was the first to move to approach me, throwing herself into my arms. I caught her, making sure to stand steady on my feet so that I wouldn't fall. I heard her moan in pain as I caught her and her tears ran onto my chest, which meant that she was one of those who were injured.

Vivian was a small woman, standing only 1.62m tall while I was much taller than her. She had a doll-like face, with heart-shaped, very rosy lips. She had a small delicate face and light blue eyes with black hair, which had a slight natural curl. We always encouraged her to wear more makeup to hide her natural beauty, but she was never keen on doing what we suggested.

"I'm here," I whispered in her ear as I looked up at John, who gave me a brief nod.

"Let's go, Vivi," I said in a soft, gentle voice.

She shook her head and I held her a little tighter to reassure her that I was indeed here.

"Can you walk?" I asked her.

Vivian slowly pulled away from me and I took her by the one hand while Cris took her by the other. The men had already been taken to their respective rooms. Liam was, however, still with us, and I gave him a slight wave to indicate that I was fine.

Cris and I took Vivian to one of the rooms that had a bathroom and a bathtub, which Jasmine had already filled. The gentle scent of chamomile and mint permeated the air in the bathroom and helped Vivian to relax.

"There is no need for you to stay, Cris," I told her. It was the nicest way I could think of, at the time, to tell her to leave me alone with Vivi.

Cris soon left and softly closed the bathroom door behind her. I carefully began to undress Vivi.

"Do you want to tell me what happened?" I asked, seeing that my friend was trembling and could hardly control herself. Dry red bloodstains soon became visible under the black overcoat she wore and I noticed that she was wearing practically no clothes under the jacket except for a flimsy, transparent black nightgown. No bra, and no underwear. Her body had a few scrapes and bruises as well.

"He... He came to my house… Threatening my family… He said that if I didn't go with him, he would kill everyone," Vivian started telling me. Her voice was hardly above a whisper, and I could feel all the pain she had to have gone through. I tried to keep my touches as gentle as possible. "So I went with him... Bullet had them prepare me... Two of his women took me to a small room and used wax everywhere... Because Bullet hates hair..." She steadily kept talking.

I used my self-control not to tremble in anger and to make Vivian more nervous. I breathed slowly in and out, and soon I had her naked and helped her into the bathtub.

"After they waxed me, they made me take a bath in some strange oil. I didn't like the smell, and it made my skin tingle. After the bath, they dressed me in these clothes and took me to another room." Vivian closed her eyes and instinctively let out a sigh of relief. I took the sponge and started cleaning her skin as carefully as possible so that I didn’t hurt her. "It was a small room that they took me to. It had only a single bed with handcuffs and various vibrators..."

She was reliving what happened, and it must be very difficult for her, but I found that, for me, talking about the things that happened to me, helped me to overcome it. It helped especially when I felt that I was in a safe place and knew that nothing would happen to me. I was no psychologist, but talking about it helped me overcome many of my problems.

"After taking me into the room they just left me there; There must have been a camera directly facing the bed, but I couldn’t tell for sure and just sat there waiting..." Her tears were spilling over her cheeks again as she spoke. "I don't know for how long I waited, but I stayed ... Then Bullet arrived, he smelled really bad... I think it was alcohol mixed with something else, he... He pulled me up to stand in front of him and then started telling me what he was going to do to me… How he..." When she stopped talking, I took her hand and squeezed it gently to encourage her to keep going.

"Open your eyes, Vivi... I'm here," I said very softly.

She opened her eyes but I realized that it took her a moment to really see me.

"He touched everything..." Her voice faltered.

Vivian was a virgin; We always managed to protect her. Like me, Vivian was also a virgin, but unlike me, she was saving herself for the right person.

"It hurt when he... He..." Vivian stopped talking again.

I pulled her to me and caressed her back, her body trembling as her sobs echoed through the room.

I had to use everything I've learned for my anger not to show. I just wanted to torture and kill Bullet. What he does to the girls in the pack is beyond horrific and I hoped that Oliver and Roman managed to kill the bastard. After a few minutes, her sobbing eased and she stopped crying.

"You are safe now... Your family is safe too... You will never have to set foot in that place again," I whispered to her.

"Thank you!" Vivian said.

"Let’s finish your bath and then you can sleep. If you want, I'll stay here with you," I offered.

Vivian leaned back in the bathtub.

"Keep your eyes open, so you can see that it's me touching you and someone else." I told her.

Vivian nodded and I continued to pass the sponge gently over her body, taking great care with the more sensitive areas. I wanted to wash her faster even through her moans of pain, but knew that if I did, I wouldn't be able to clean her properly. I also knew that she would probably want to take other baths later, because that's what I did, at first, when they tried to touch me without my consent.

I finished washing her after a few minutes and I helped her to stand up, dried her off, and finally put her in a soft pair of pajamas. I sat her down in front of the mirror and dried her hair. Throughout the entire time, she still let out a few sobs but never took her eyes off me. When I was done preparing her for bed, I led her to it, helped her into it and to lie down. Vivian startled as someone knocked on the door.

"I'll see who it is," I said and went to the door, opening it only a little to see who it was. The doctor stood at the door and when I opened it, he handed me two medications for Vivian.

"One is for pain and the other is to help her sleep," he advised as he placed them in my hands.

"Thank you," I replied, taking the medications from him and closing the door again, returning to Vivian.

I walked to the bedside table, took the water pitcher, poured some water into the glass for Vivian, and placed the medication in her hand.

"I... don't want to..." Vivian argued weakly.

"But you need to take it; They will help you to recover. I'll stay here, don't worry." I told her.

With that, Vivian took the medication and soon fell asleep.