Ashes (Web of Desire #3) - Aleatha Romig Page 0,92

me.”

“Every fucking day for seventeen years. In Mrs. Miller’s journals, we’ve learned about an attorney named William Adkins who specialized in private adoptions. You said Kristine was paid $500 for our unborn child. What we’re seeing is that Adkins was getting $20,000—$50,000 per baby. Someone was profiting in the middle. It appears as though the Ortizes sold to more buyers than Dr. Miller.”

“Who did Dr. Miller sell me to?”

I sat straighter. “McFadden was the top of that chain.”

“Yeah, but the way Marion and Andros talked, McFadden tracked me down because I was the daughter of Allister Sparrow. If that’s the case, then yeah, the senator knew where to find me, but who was in charge of the cell house? Who took us there and kept us there? I would guess that few other pregnant girls left there showered and set for auction in a mansion across town.”

My jaw clenched as I again sat back. My mind was swirling in a new direction. “I hate asking you to recall particulars. You told me about the auction and the room in McFadden’s home. The house with the cell, you said, was a normal-looking home from the outside.”

Madeline nodded. “I wish I could remember more or even that I’d tried to look. The night they drove me to the auction, I wasn’t thinking straight. I remember being dazed by fresh air. It was warm. I’d lost track of time. When Kristine sold me, it was winter. I remember being told to behave or I’d be brought back.” She sucked in a deep breath. “Fucking pitiful, but that was my motivation to stand there—anything not to go back.”

This woman before me was anything but pitiful. “Strong, Maddie. You were strong. Do you remember any names from the cell house?”

Her head shook. “Not of the customers. They never told us. We were told to call them sir or daddy or some stupid demeaning shit like that.”

My eyes closed and nostrils flared. “Fuck, Madeline.”

Her hand reached for my arm, causing me to open my eyes. “It helps. Now that it’s out, it helps me to say more. I won’t, though, if it upsets you.”

Her sincerity returned a grin to my lips. “My reactions are inconsequential. I’m here for you. I’ll listen every fucking day and night if it helps you. Honestly, I had somehow jumped that step in my mind. I had you going from Miller to McFadden.”

“Maybe McFadden was in charge of the cell house, but he was never there. He came to Dr. Miller’s that first night and then he was in the mansion. The cell house was beneath him.”

Another breath in and out. “You could be on to something. Now that you pointed it out, I have another person’s head to place at your feet.”

“Miss Warner.”

I tried to recall the particulars Madeline had shared during her purge. “She was the woman who ran the cell house?”

“Yes, but I have no way of knowing if that’s her real name.”

“If we find her, I will remove her from your worries.”

“No,” Madeline said. “If you find her, I want to talk to her.”

My hand went to her cheek, gently cupping her soft skin. “I’m warning you, it may be like the Ortizes. She may not remember you.”

“I don’t care. It’s not about that. I don’t care if I’m special to Kristine or Miss Warner. I have something I want to find out.”

“What do you want to know?” I asked.

“I want to know why Miss Warner would do what she did,” Madeline replied. “I guess the question came to me after the first time Andros made me prepare those women. I wondered if Miss Warner performed her role as I had, without choice. Before that day, I’d never given her motivation a second thought. Just maybe she hated what she was doing as much as I did.”

“Or the truth is simpler,” I proposed. “She was merely a cat with a basement full of mice.”

“I’ll never know if I don’t ask.”

Madeline

I looked up at Patrick as we walked to the elevators, knowing that I’d told my story to this loving, handsome tall man at my side and he hadn’t turned me away. As a matter of fact, he’d presented four sacrifices at my feet.

I’d never wanted revenge, and yet when given it as a gift, I willingly accepted it. I’m not sure what that made me other than grateful to be back in his life.

In the great wheel of trafficking and exploitation, I was but a small cog