from work. Around three or four in the morning she’d come back to bed, always crying. I never questioned what was happening until one night when she came upstairs bleeding. Her clothes were torn.
“What happened to you?”
I had a hunch, but didn’t want to assume. I mean, she was with her father. Nothing bad should happen to her. While I helped her into the shower, I studied her body horrified. Her breasts were purple, her wrists red with rope marks, and blood dripped down her thighs.
“We should call the police,” I suggested.
“No, don’t do that. They’ll punish me—or you.”
“Who?”
“Dad.”
I felt sick to my stomach while Ava told me that a man had done this to her with her father’s permission.
“That’s wrong.”
“I’m eighteen,” she said. “A consenting adult. He didn’t do all this until I was old enough. Before it wasn’t as bad.”
“What do you mean?”
She was vague about what happened to Shaun and her, but it was clear to me.
“He’s molested you?” I asked, horrified.
“Something like that.” Her voice was broken and so was she.
My heart broke. This couldn’t be happening. Not in my house. I promised her that I’d take care of her, that I’d make it better. Her father had to be stopped.
“You can’t escape them,” she said. “I already tried, and they beat me. It was so bad that I couldn’t leave the bed or open my eyes for days.”
“Shaun … does he need help too?”
She shrugged. “Dad gives him stuff to keep him happy, and if he wants more, he’d better obey him.”
I couldn’t wrap my head around everything she was telling me.
“My mother likes you. She might want to help you.”
“I don’t think she likes me as much as you think,” she snarled.
“Well, if no one listens to me, we’ll run away. I have money.”
The next morning, I talked to my mother and told her everything that Ava had said.
“You’re a fucking liar,” she said, pulling my hair.
“Corbin!” she called him desperately.
“Tell him, tell him what you just told me, bitch.” She slammed my head against the wall. “Tonight, you’re not sleeping in your bedroom. In fact, I’ll have them get rid of your bed. From now on, you’ll sleep on the floor.”
“What’s going on?”
His eyes flared with pleasure when he saw the way my mother was treating me. Whatever passed through his mind scared the fuck out of me.
“She says that you’re abusing Ava and that you’re a drug dealer,” Mom explained.
“You bitch,” he roared, with his hand pressed against my neck, choking me. “If you ever repeat that you’re going to pay.”
My eyes stung. He pushed me to the floor and kicked me in the stomach and the head. This couldn’t be happening. Instead of going to school, I went to the police station and reported what was happening at home. Corbin and Mom came to pick me up.
“Sorry. She’s mentally ill,” Corbin explained. Mom nodded in agreement. “She stopped taking her medication. She watched a movie last night, and now she’s starting to mix fantasy with reality. We love her so much.”
Neither one said a word to me, but when I got home, Shaun dragged me to the basement. He kept me there for several days. I understood what Ava had gone through. He filmed everything he did to me. Shaun made me watch every video and look at every picture of myself as he uploaded them to the websites.
“I like it when you beg me to stop.” He palmed his dick, licking his lips.
Since the principal called to ask about my absences, they allowed me to go back to school. Corbin didn’t want to raise any red flags. They made me quit my jobs.
“If you say a word, Ava will pay for it,” Corbin threatened me.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Wes
Abby skims through the report and points at the picture of the guy lying on the floor outside her house.
“He was one of his biggest clients,” Abby says letting out a breath. “His business shifted once Mom learned what he was doing. He pimped everyone he could. Shaun, Ava, Mom, the other women he lured to the house …”
Me, she mouths.
Anger spirals in the pit of my stomach as I learn of the hell she lived through. While at the same time I have flashes of my old life, the women crying and the men mounting them.
She sends an indifferent glance around the room. “Some days were worse than others. Mom didn’t care if they killed me or not.”
Not Abby, I repeat in my head.