Chapter 6

Giovanni

"Thank you for calling me.  I am sorry they caused so much trouble for you and I appreciate you not charging them," I said, shaking the Chief's hand while pinching the bridge of my nose with my other hand.  Valentine's drinking had only gotten worse since his mother's passing but this was the last straw.  

"It's no worry Mr. Rossi.  I was young once too.  And I heard your boy graduated Validictorian, so congratulations.  Just tell him and Mr. Agosti to keep the partying to a more normal level next time," the Chief replied smiling.  Sometimes it paid to be a big supporter of our local  police force.

I watched as my son and his cousin Matteo were escorted from the cells in the back to the front desk where I was waiting on them.  They were so wasted they could barely stand.  I scoffed and colsed my eyes taking a deep breath, trying to gain some patience.  Tomorrow they would be in for a rude awakening.  

My driver Toni came forward as we approached the doors to assist with getting them in the car.  I looked around the room as we left and my heart almost stopped when I saw her.  There, just 100 feet to my left was the brave girl who promised to change the world with her photos.  She was sitting on the ground with a dog in her lap, broken and crying "please don't take him!".  

I asked Toni and the officers to get the boys in the car while I quickly made my way over to her.  "Miss I'm sorry but he's got to go back.  He doesn't belong to us anymore," the officer holding the leash replied, gently tugging at the dog.

As I approached I called out to her.  "Adira?"  She lifted her face up and out of the dog's neck and I gasped when I saw her, tears and blood streaming down her black and blue face.  "My god child what happened?"

She started crying harder and wrapped her small arms around the dog who was doing it's best to comfort her.  "What happened to her?" I asked loudly, looking around to the officers near her.  I caught the chief's eye and as he approached I heard the officer closer to her say "We don't know sir.  She stumbled in like this a few minutes ago."  

"And none of you thought to call for medical?  Call now," I said angrily, pulling out my phone and texting Toni to dump the boys at home and come right back for me.  One of the nearby officers picked up the phone and called for an ambulance while I squatted down closer to Adira.  "Adira, cara, we're going to get you some help.  It's ok now you're safe," I said gently petting her head. 

I gave the officer the information I had remembered on Adira - her age, the college she was in and that she had no family near - her only brother was stationed overseas and she had an uncle that worked for the government but lived states away.  The officer tugged on the dog again but before he could speak again I cut him off.  "Leave the damn dog.  I'll buy him.  I don't care.  Can't you see he's the only one smart enough to offer her comfort around here," I snapped.  I looked over to the chief and said "I'll buy you two more for him, just let her have him."  He nodded and asked the officer to get his paperwork for me.

Finally the ambulance arrived and I was able to convince her to go with them, promising to follow and bring the dog - Charlie.  I wrote a check for the Chief and told him to have an officer come by in a few hours to get her statement before I jumped in the car with Toni and the dog and headed to the hospital.

It had been worse than I thought.  Once they finally got Adira taken care of and in a private room - at my request as I told them I would be paying the bill- I was shocked to see how bad she really was.  She had given them permission to share her medical information with me and after taking Charlie into her room, where he promptly jumped up and laid next to her, the doctor gave me the run down.  Adira had been brutally attacked.  It did appear that she had fought back and they did collect dna and took photos for when the officers arrived.  Luckily it looked like she narrowly missed being raped, but that the assault did appear sexual in nature.  

When the officers came back, I woke Adira and with me and Charlie by her side she told them what happened to her.  She had been invited out by her room mate to an end of the year party.  She said she didn't drink but that she agreed to go after her room mate's constant begging.  She said when she got there the party was in full swing and that her friend introduced her around.  She met a guy named Chris who had seemed really nice.  They had spent most of the night talking and laughing.  When It was almost midnight she told him she needed to go because she worked the next day.  He offered to walk her home which she thought was nice and she let her friend know she was leaving.  

They'd only walked a few blocks before he attacked her, shoving her into the woods along the street they were walking down.  She had fought him with everything she had, receiving a concussion, a fractured orbital bone, two black eyes, a broken nose, a broken arm and various cuts and bruises before finally escaping and running to the police station, which was closer than her dorm.

After the officers left I told Adira that I would return in the morning, but that I would be leaving a guard outside her door and that Charlie was hers now and that he would be staying with her.  She tried to apologize and I wouldn't let her.  

Charlie, as I found out when the officers came, was actually a dog that had just flunked out of K9 school.  They had actually arranged to have the kennel he came from put him up for adoption so it worked out.  For whatever reason him and Adira had taken to each other like I've never seen before. Even the officers were suprised as he had never shown much affection even to his handler. 

The next morning I had put Valentine and Matteo on the plane to Italy.  He would be working under my brother, Matteo's father, in Italy until he could get his act together.  Then I returned to the hospital to Adira.  She had a long road to recovery, though by the end of summer her physical wounds had healed.  When she was getting discharged I convinced her to stay with me for her recovery and I hired a nurse to come and check in on her.  

It took a few weeks for me to convince her to do therapy.  She had become a shell of the the girl I had met the year before and I was really concerned for her mental state.  At the end of summer I could see her starting to peek out again and was hopeful until she started back her classes.  Then the nightmares and the panic attacks came on.  

Since I was already familiar with the dean as she attended the same collage Valentine had just graduated from, I called him and informed him what was going on and they allowed her to complete her courses that year online.  She spent the year in intensive therapy and with med management was able to do a few classes during the summer in person.  She was very smart and worked hard and was able to complete her degree in three years in photojournalism.  By the end of her years in college she was able to be around others as long as Charlie was with her.