A choked cry escaped her. "What you did isn't being protective. Can't you see that? What you did...oh God, Khadem." Prue couldn't even bear to say the words out loud. "How could you have Alta...and those guys..."
"They had to pay for what they did to you."
"Then sue them! Have me sue them! But what you did isn't normal—-"
"Maybe to you it isn't," Khadem bit out, "but that's what normal has always been for me. For my people and the entire fucking kingdom of Huzna."
"It's too much—-"
"No, goddammit. It's not too much at all," Khadem snapped, "and it's because of people like you that people like them are able to get away with hurting more people. Alta will never change, Prue. Women like her are incessantly jealous and will blame you and everyone else for never feeling content or happy. Your cousin would never stop trying to harm you until she was taught a lesson."
"What you did wasn't a lesson—-"
But Khadem raged past her words like he couldn't hear a single thing she was saying.
"And those men who tried to rape you - do you really think you were the first girl they tried to rape?" Khadem snarled. "I have their files with me, and you would have been the fucking tenth! The tenth girl whose innocence they had stolen and whose life they had ruined. I did what should have done to them in the first place, so that they could never hurt another girl again!"
Prue no longer knew what to think. She understood what he was saying and where he was coming from. She got that he had saved other girls from being raped, and saved Prue herself from being harmed by Alta, but...
He had her cousin raped, and other guys had their members cut off because of him!
How could she just forget that?
Was she really supposed to act like his eye-for-an-eye method of serving justice was okay?
"Say something, Prue."
The hoarseness of his voice made her want to cry. It was so unlike Khadem to sound like this, and when she made herself look at him, she realized that she had actually hurt Khadem without even knowing it.
"I'm sorry. I know you did it for me. But it's just too much."
Desperation ignited inside of Khadem at Prue's words. "Tell me what you want me to change," he said fiercely, "and I'll change it."
"I think I just need some time."
Khadem felt himself grow numb. Time. That was what Alanna had asked of him. And he had given it to her like a fool, thinking that she meant she needed time to think...but instead she had ended up using that time to destroy him.
"Prudence? Prudence!"
Prue whitened when she heard her parents' voices outside the room.
"What is the meaning of this?"
Mom.
"Who the hell are you to keep us from entering our daughter's room?"
Dad.
"These jerks suddenly showed up to block the doors," she heard Klaus say angrily, "and this goddamm hospital won't do a thing about it."
Prue turned to Khadem, asking shakily, "Does that mean Klaus didn't see you come in?"
"He didn't."
She saw him hesitate. "What is it?"
"I can also leave without being seen—-"
Prue was already nodding before he even finished speaking. "Please."
Khadem's fists clenched. "You don't want your parents to see me?"
"Oh God, no." She could just imagine how her parents would react, and then there was also Klaus. Having them meet Khadem under these circumstances would be a disaster—-
"I see."
The sudden hollowness of Khadem's voice penetrated her panic. "Khadem?"
But he had already turned away, and Prue was left staring in shock as Khadem opened the door, and with his security immediately forming a wall around him, he was able to walk past her parents and Klaus without being seen, just like he had promised.
"Oh God, Prudence, honey." Celine came running into the room, her usual poise gone. "Who was that man? Are you alright? Did he do something to you?"
Her father and Klaus entered the room and asked similar questions, their expressions uneasy and worried.
She wished she could make herself answer them, but right now, all Prue could think about was Khadem.
Why did it feel like she had made the biggest mistake of her life?
Chapter Eleven
Prue stayed for a night at the hospital before being discharged, and she wasn't sure what her parents and the doctors had talked about, but when they came to drive her home, they had ceased to question her about the "stranger" who had "hijacked" her room.
Her parents advised her to stay home for a few days before going back to university, and when Klaus came to visit her after his soccer practice, Prue knew she could no longer delay the inevitable.
She told him what had happened to her without naming names, but Klaus had somehow still guessed Alta, Chip and the others were involved, and it had hurt to see him break down while she was recounting her ordeal.