Page 33 of Fierce-Dane

“Your mother was raped,” he said.

“Yes, I believe that.”

It wasn’t something that was talked about other thanthat it was just the way things were done there. They were a law unto themselves.

“Legally, yes,” he said.

“Of course legally. I’m not sure if my mother felt it or not. I think she was brainwashed, but I can’t speak for her.”

He continued to eat and then said, “So you’ve got a lot of half siblings out there?”

“Biologically, yes.” But that didn’t mean she had to have any relationship with them and didn’t plan it.

There were some kids she’d played with back then when she was younger.

Others she’d talked to as a preteen when they all wanted to know what was going on in the real world.

Some were just as brainwashed as her mother had been and she had no use for them.

“But you have no contact with any of them?”

“No,” she said. “When I was fifteen there was talk about ‘marrying’ me off to one of the leaders. No way that was going to happen. I’d leave and was planning on it.”

“Did you?” he asked.

“We all left together. My mother was sick a lot. For the years she lived there she was always having some kind of health issues, but there were no doctors. No real medication. You got through. No one was let onto the property unless they were part of the cult. She became convinced that someone was poisoning her and wanted her dead.”

“Do you think that was happening?” he asked.

“No clue,” she said. “I just remember my mother was always sick. Or seemed it. She, Sabrina and I snuck out one night. In the middle of the night, we packed up what we had and left. I remember walking for hours in the dark.”

“That had to be scary,” he said. “I’m sorry you went through that.”

“It wasn’t as scary as it should have been because I just thought we were finally getting out. My mother was smart enough to steal some money.” She’d never say how much. She wasn’t positive of the amount, but it was enough to get them set up.

“Good for her,” he said. “It seemed to me she might have been held hostage there.”

“It felt that way. She got us an apartment and government assistance. A job came next. We were put in school.”

Talk about a fish out of water, but she wouldn’t go into those details now. No reason to. She was already saying more than she’d thought she would.

“Which explains the homeschooling,” he said.

“Yes. I’d been working all through school and putting away as much money as I could. I wanted to move out of my mother’s apartment and have control of my own life. I got sick of feeling like we had to look over our shoulders.”

“Did they come after you?” he asked. “Or someone?”

“We moved twice that first year. I moved out when we were in Virginia. I was nineteen at that point. I’d had enough money put away. I felt it’d be easier to get my massage license in North Carolina. I worked while I did my training. It took about a year. People loved free massages.”

Five hundred hours of them she had to give. Many tipped and that helped but not everyone did. For her, every massage was just one step closer to stability.

“I bet they did,” he said. “And now you’ve got your own salon.”

“I do,” she said. “I’ve had it about four years now. I started alone. Renting the space was hard as it was a large space, but I had plans and ideas to grow.”

“Good for you,” he said. “And you’ve focused on that for years.”

“I have,” she said. “Much like you but not even in the same ballpark.”

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