Page 6 of 3013: Wonderland

“Yeah, but I feel bad for—”

“Stop,” Emma insisted. “None of this is your fault.”

But it was, Juliet countered silently. Half of the people outside of the sanctuary were there because they hated her, while the other half was there to support her. The support was appreciated, but she still couldn’t quite understand how she had become the poster girl for defying the Alliance and challenging martial law.

In the weeks since she’d been saved from James Borov’s clutches, it had been a whirlwind of activity. Once she had been safely tucked away inside the sanctuary, she had been given comfortable living quarters and thoroughly healed of all physical wounds. For the first few days, she did very little besides sleep, eat, and take long, hot showers.

When she lived with James, her showers had been timed, and the temperature of the water had been programmed since he claimed too much hot water was bad for her skin. That had just been another way for him to control her. Stripping away all the little joys in her life was supposed to make her grateful when he gave something back to her.

Instead, it just made her hate him more.

After that period of rest, she had woken one evening to discover she felt pretty damn normal. For the first time in what seemed like forever, she had actually felt free. It was like waking up after a horrible nightmare and discovering that none of it had actually happened.

Only, her nightmare had been real.

It might have sounded strange, but her relief had made her feel horrible. A part of her felt guilty about feeling normal. When she had been offered counseling with one of the trained specialists the sanctuary had on staff, she had gladly accepted. It was obvious that she needed extensive therapy after what she’d experienced since she was still having a difficult time processing everything.

Despite the counseling, she still felt a little disconnected from what had happened. She thought that didn’t make sense since she still carried all the pain, anguish, and anger inside of her. The counselor had assured her that was completely normal, though. The counselor told her that she needed to redefine “normal” for herself. Everyone handled trauma differently, and Juliet had to let herself deal with everything in her own time.

Time was something she had plenty of now.

Being in a safe place around people she knew wouldn’t hurt her did wonders for her sense of well-being. She was slowly being reintroduced to the world, and the people at the sanctuary ensured that she could do so at her own pace. No one made her feel bad when she’d had a panic attack after she was late to agroup dinner. Nor did they get irritated when she flinched away when someone raised a hand or moved too fast around her. The people at the sanctuary had completely closed ranks around her, forming a physical and emotional barrier between her and the rest of the world.

They allowed her to breathe and be at peace.

But that couldn’t last forever.

James, Beatrice, and Willard had been taken into custody, but in order to make sure they paid for what they had done to her, Juliet had to deal with the authorities. The Dragon Warriors and their connections within the Alliance had pushed to give her as much time to recover as they could, but they couldn’t keep delaying the unavoidable.

When she was ready to speak to the authorities, she didn’t do it alone. The Dragon Warriors had made sure the Alliance investigators had to come to the sanctuary instead of her reporting to them. Emma, Melody, Jade, and Alestra had stayed with her through it all, and when the Alliance officers had said she was only allowed two legal representatives, her group of protectors had just laughed.

Taking legal action against James and the others for what they’d done to her had been difficult, yet necessary. It also highlighted all of the problems with the current laws regarding bonding. While the Alliance wanted to quietly settle the matter, she’d wanted everyone to know exactly what had been done to her in order to stop it from happening to anyone else.

James’ family had done their best to try to stop her, but Juliet had the entire sanctuary standing with her. Not only were they an amazing support system, they also came in handy when it came to collecting evidence. Since the Dragon Warriors and the Ilius princess didn’t need to ask for permission to do what they wanted, they had easily found all of the evidence needed to prove every word Juliet had reported was true.

It hadn’t shocked her to discover that James had recorded everything he had done to her once he’d kidnapped her. What she hadn’t expected was for them to find recordings of several other women being subjected to the same kinds of torture she had been put through. Each of the victims had been a dancer like her, but instead of bonding with them, they had simply disappeared after he’d been done with them.

Although James had refused to answer questions about the missing women, Jade had somehow gotten the information they needed out of him. It made Juliet furious and sad to know that what she and the other women had gone through had been made possible because of the current bonding laws. Women were claimed and taken prisoner all the time because the Alliance allowed it.

When it became clear that James was actually a murderer on top of being a sadistic torturer, Juliet reached a new level of rage. While the trial had been kept relatively quiet, she’d made the decision to leak it to the public. She wanted people to know exactly what had happened to her and the other victims to help them understand just how fucked the current bonding laws were.

She had thought it would be difficult to recount the details of her captivity, but she discovered her anger had vastly outweighed her embarrassment. Besides, she wasn’t the one who should feel ashamed. That fell on the people to blame for her situation, which, in her mind, included anyone who agreed with force bonding.

She had mixed feelings about James, Beatrice, and Willard being sent off to the Mars Penal Colony. A small part of her wanted them dead and gone from the universe, but she liked thinking about them being trapped and living in absolute misery for the rest of their lives. She was also happy knowing she would never have to see them ever again.

The rest of the Borov family suffered as well. James had used their company as a hunting ground for victims, and they had helped him cover his tracks. Although they claimed they hadn’t known what he had been doing, they had wiped their records of the women who had disappeared. Because of their callous disregard, five women had lost their lives. Women who had been like Juliet, with no families and no close friendships. So when they had gone missing, there had been no one to search for them.

That was something Juliet was still having a difficult time accepting. After their bodies had been discovered out in the badlands, Juliet started having nightmares about being buried alive in the desert. James’ explanation for why he hadn’t killed her had made it even worse. The others he had taken before her had been part of the corps, the general dance troupe. Since she had been a principal dancer, he had deemed her worthy enough to bond with.

In her quest for revenge, she had made sure information about the trial had been blasted all over the planet, but she hadn’t really thought about what that would mean for her once it was over. While she wanted to put everything behind her and move on with her life, that wasn’t possible now.

By making the details of the trial public, she had somehow become the figurehead of a movement, challenging the Alliance. With the creation of the cure for infertility, changing the bonding laws simply made sense, but not everyone agreed with her.

There was a group of people that hated her for going against the current system. Some even claimed she was lying about everything that had happened with James. It didn’t matter to them that there were other victims, or that people had been murdered. They overlooked everything that didn’t fit their own narrative.

On the flipside, Juliet had become a hero to some. That made her feel guilty since she didn’t feel like she deserved the title. In fact, she knew she didn’t. She hadn’t done it for the greater good. She hadn’t even done it for the other victims. She had simply wanted revenge against the people who had hurt her, and everything else had just been a byproduct of her true purpose.

Because of her new public status, she’d been asked to speak to the Council of Regents along with several other people who wanted to challenge the bonding rules. She’d never been a good public speaker, so her initial reaction had been to refuse. However, when it came down to it, she knew someone had to speak for all the other women still suffering in silence. And since that person had somehow ended up being her, she made a vow to do the best she could.

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