Page 37 of But I'm Still Standing

I sit her down in her chair next to mine and watch as everyone comes in with bowls and trays of food, placing them all on the table as they take their seats.

“How are you feeling today?” Cami asks looking back and forth between me and Savvy.

“Much better today. I really want to get the nursery done and maybe play a little bit tonight if y’all are up for it.” Savvy smiles at Cami, then looks to the other girls for reassurance.

“I for one would love to take out some aggression.” Shelby pipes in, looking down at her plate when the girls all look to her with sympathy, I think.

“Tell me you have let her have some fun without me!” Savvy looks to me and the guys, obviously irritated.

“Oh, no, I wanted to wait until you were ready, Joe keeps telling me I can go anytime I want. I just prefer to do it together!” Shelbyinterrupts, waving her hands around and shaking her head, making sure she didn’t get any of us in trouble.

“Well, tonight, let’s finish this. I’m tired of worrying about them still being down there, and I think I figured out how to get to Mark.” I say as I take a bite of ham and scrambled eggs.

“Oh yeah? What did you find on the bastard? Charlie said he has to be some kind of soulless zombie to take what the Saints have been giving him. They have been playing in their own way in our absence, getting answers. There is video for us to watch.” Cami says wide eyed.

“They videoed it?” I side eye Sin. He holds his hands up acting innocent.

“Yeah, not everything, but they said we could watch the interrogation, since we weren’t even allowed down there.” Joe motions between himself and the guys, “as in the guys, they didn’t say anything about you girls.” He finishes, looking down, refusing to make eye contact with any of us.

“Bullshit! I want to know what in the hell they had to ask them, and if Mark talked! I found a journal with the initials V D. I figured out that it was Vivians. She had a daughter about five years after Max was born. She sold her. She didn’t even feel bad about it. The Saints never knew about her. She hid the pregnancy, did her research, and she figured out that she could make money stealing and selling babies. The Saints only knew what she told them about the pregnancies and the births. She lied about a few babies being stillborn and sold those to the highest bidder. She was smart, paying off a few of the doctors and guards that were on the morally grey side of things. She started making a profit and the stockyards were created. She called it the stockyards because she saw women as pets who were to be sufficiently trained and sold with a revolving door. She held auctions just like they would with cattle back home. None of the covenants ever knew the truth about their babies. She has taken so many heirs from the Saints over the years and profited. I’m sure they have several questions for her.”

“Technically it’s only audio. They knew we would all watch and blacked out the tape. I listened to some of it when they sent it this morning. There are sections of silent parts that they obviously didn’t want us to hear. They were talking about the doctors involved and the records of all the babies. They said that they could find them if the doctors followed protocol.” Sin grabs my hand and gives it a squeeze, pulling me out of my thoughts.

“Chips. I read in a girl’s journal that she saw the doctor put a chip in her baby’s foot, but when she checked it, there was nothing there.” Everyone looks at me like I’m nuts.

“What? I have had a ton of down time and decided to read all the journals Max kept. I figured they all have some kind of significance if he kept them. There are three that I’m sure were Lotties and the one that I know was Vivians. The problem is, they all just have initials embossed on the front. Oh, and the baby girl Vivian had was Marks. He wanted to keep her and live a blissfully happy life, but she wouldn’t have it. Vivian made Mark take her to whoever bought her. Mark was Vivians’s puppet; he would do anything for her. To keep her. When she had the baby girl, she finally got a hysterectomy so it wouldn’t happen again. Guess who her doctor of choice was?” I looked to Sin, knowing I had dropped a bomb on him. Everyone just gawks at me. “Your dad’s favorite doctor, who just so happens to specialize in obstetrics.”

“The picture of the dark-haired girl in the duffle bag. She is my sister?” Sin hangs his head shaking it back and forth, obviously trying to process everything.

“If it helps, I also found what I thought was someone’s journal, but it was a log of sorts of all the births in that house and several of the stockyards. It could help them find the babies that were taken. Even the ones that aren’t of Saint blood. I just found Vivians’s journal this morning! I’m sorry, I should have told you before we came down.” I place my hand on my rounded belly, thankful that I never had to go through what those girls did. I can’t help but want tohelp them all. I know I should have told Sin that he has a sister in private. I wasn’t thinking how this would affect him.

“It’s okay Savvy. You have had a lot to deal with.” Sin looks down at me, but I can see the hurt in his eyes, that I sprung this at breakfast in front of everyone.

“I’ve been selfish and a bitch. I’m sorry. You deserve to know who she is though.” I apologize, looking down feeling like shit for hurting him again.

“Hey, maybe I have one sibling out there that isn’t a complete psychopath! Ya never know, we could all have multiple siblings out there with our parents.” Sin chuckles, still shaking his head at the notion. Well, at least he isn’t mad.

“Savvy, you have been a bitch, but you are the least selfish person I know. Hormones suck, bedrest sucks, but you are always trying to help and bring these assholes to justice. That’s pretty selfless. You could use some lessons on tact though.” MJ laughs along with everyone else at the table.

“Thanks sweetie, but I have been selfish. I have been thinking of nothing else but my own revenge when there are so many people who deserve to get theirs as well. Shelby has had to wait two weeks to get to go down there and face her attacker. Why? Because Savvy needs it. No! No more! I am not any more special than any of you. We all need to go down there and finish this in our own way, together. Not just me. These fuckers have taken a lot from me, but they took it from you too.”

“Fuck yeah! Do we have to pick songs again or can we just unleash?” Mia asks with a gleam in her eyes.

“Princess, you direct me, and I’ll do whatever you ask, but you and Savvy have to sit back and watch this time.” Nick leans over and

kisses Mia’s cheek, making her huff.

“Fine, but we get all the remotes!” I smirk as I take a bite of toast while I think about shocking the shit out of them all.

Chapter 23

Sin

34 weeks

Sometimes these girls scare me with how much they enjoy torturing people. I should be proud I suppose, but I want to see the girls happy again, without the looming doom beneath us. We all sit at breakfast deciding on torture tactics while I sift through a few of the journals Savvy had talked about. Shelby seems to be fitting in with the girls and I can’t say that I have ever seen Joe happier. I wasn’t sure if he would be able to bounce back from Jill, but she did make his life hell the last six months.

Abby helped Mia and MJ remove all of her things from Joes part of the house. They found several of her journals that she kept over the years. Bash wasn’t her first, Max was when she was fifteen. He would stay in a lake house Vivian owns in Disney and Jill was his pet. He met her a few weeks before her sixteenth birthday at Ugly Johns and took her virginity on her birthday. He was the love of her life. She knew all about Bash and was told to be a good pet while he was in town. He promised her a life outside of small-town Oklahoma where she would be worshipped, as his covenant. She saw it as her duty. I can’t help but look over at MJ. She was conditioned and groomed from birth, to believe in all the bullshit Mark and Vivian fed her.

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