My heart began to speed up and there was a fire filling my veins. I knew what it was, I had felt it before. Only those times I had been out for blood. I didn’t want to be angry with Midori and I didn’t want to hurt her, but I also needed to know that she understood the seriousness of the consequences to her actions.
“What do you want me to say, Petra?” Her eyes fell downcast as she let out a resigned sigh. “I don’t like lying to my sister but I get that I have to in order to keep us all safe. Her included.”
I believed her. It didn’t make the whole situation any easier but at least it was one less thing I had to worry about.
“I need you to tell me everything. Start from the beginning,” I said calmly.
With a sad nod, she started her story.
I listened silently as she told me about her childhood.
She explained how she was raised with the word of the church and how she had believed it blindly for a long time. It wasn’t until she was nearly eighteen when she realized that what was going on around her wasn’t something she wanted to be a part of. She had been lucky because she hadn’t been married off young. Her father held no power, working a pointless job most of his life. She hadn’t been a sought after prize, especially with her looks. Tears were in her eyes as she told me all of this. I wasn’t sure why she was crying but I had to admit that I felt a sense of anger flicker through me.
When she told me that, I paused. I tried to see her from these peoples’ point of view, but I couldn’t.
Midori was striking in her looks. It was part of what made me hire her. I knew that there would be men that would be thrilled with what she had to offer. And that was before I knew everything she’d be able to do. I think she didn’t even know herself at the point I had given her a chance.
I couldn’t lie, I knew she was a little innocent. Not quite a virgin but she still had that bright, wide-eyed look to her.
She explained how she was raised in a town where everyone went to the same church and held the same values. Her family never traveled and as far as she was aware, not many of the townspeople ever left town unless it was to go to a nearby town for something they needed.
When she told me that her best friend had married at fourteen, a cold chill ran through my body.
Midori told me that it was a normal thing and she didn’t realize how wrong it was until she was nearly eighteen.
That was the reason she ran. She had been moving from town to town the three years before she found me.
“She was uncomfortable,” Midori said talking about her friend. “But I don’t think she knew what was going on. They didn’t teach us any kind of sex education, of course. And we had learned that you were made to serve two things, the Lord and your husband.”
She stared blankly at the wall behind me. The sound of my nail tapping on my desk brought her back. With a quick shake of her head, she carried on.
“It showed weakness when I left. My family looked weak and my father looked even weaker not being able to keep me under control.” She let out a choppy sigh. “Deep down, I knew they would want me back and that they wouldn’t ever stop looking for me.”
“These are all things that I would have liked to have known before they found you,” I told her with a flat expression. “But there is nothing to be done about it now.”
“I’m sorry, Petra,” she said and began to cry harder. “I didn’t think anyone would get hurt. It was me they wanted. If you hadn’t…”
I gave her no sympathy in my look. I refused to see that I had done the wrong thing by going out and searching for her.
“I was wrong,” she said. “I can’t tell you how sorry I am. I know that you’re angry with me and all I want is to fix it.”
“I’m not mad,” I told her with a small shrug. “However, you have lost my trust and I haven’t decided if you can even earn it back. But that doesn’t mean that I’m not going to keep you and your sister safe.”
“Thank you,” she said softly as her chin dropped to her chest. “I don’t know what I’m going to do now. With our mother in jail, Amy has no one to take care of her.”
“Are you the only relative left?”
“Yes. Well, we have a grandfather but our parents put him in a nursing home a few towns over when he started showing signs of dementia.”
“So you will have to take care of her. Maybe you should put your focus on that right now.” I realized that she had been through a lot with recently but it was time for her to start figuring out how to shake herself out of it. Maybe if she had something important to focus on then she wouldn’t sit around letting her mind relive that night.
“I’m going to see what I can do about getting your mother out. You are going to help me,” I said.
I had no intentions of involving her more than to get information out of her and her sister. I knew when it came to the girl, Midori would have a softer touch.
They weren’t going to know that my plan was more than simply saving her mother. I had to make sure that nothing ever came back on me, her, or the club.
