Chapter 38

• [ZARINA]
• I used to think growing up in an orphanage was painful. I obviously overlooked what tormenting a bullet in your gut would feel like. For the past five minutes, I’m trying to sit, but the pain is unbearable. The stitches are fresh so every time I move or even try to breathe a little deeper, my body hurts like hell.
• I can hear my own painful cries bobbing against these walls. It’s not a terrible place for captivity, but it sure isn’t anything like the Perazzo mansion either. It’s dark and desolate. Instead of elegant rooms, it’s an underground cell with chirpy rats and reeking floors. They operated on me, had taken the bullet out. Glad to know that I’m still alive. For how long, however, only God can tell. As much as I would like to want to survive this, the pain is just too much. They haven’t even cared to give any pain-relieving drugs. I’m pretty sure even the crappiest doctor of the century wouldn’t forget to write one.