Page 29 of Cruel Hearts

I recognize several people, but a lot I don’t because the private party had opened to the public by then.

The person filming scans the ballroom, and the muted conversations drown out the screaming...at first.

Whoever’s recording swings the camera or phone to the back of the ballroom, and Zarah bursts through the entryway, her shrill shrieks quieting the guests.

The camera shot zooms in. It’s sickening someone would film this rather than stop and run to her aid, but at the same time my eyes are glued to the screen in identical gruesome fascination.

“He took her! He took her!” Zarah stumbles and falls to her knees. She’s tearing at her hair, and her eyes are rolling around in their sockets. Clayton and Zane rush to her side, and she lunges at Zane, her teeth bared, snarling like a rabid dog. “Make him let her go!” she screams, attacking him. “Make him let her go!”

Zane pushes her off, and Zarah slaps him across the face so hard I wince.

Hotel security intervenes then, and they restrain her. Someone calls emergency services and the paramedics administer a sedative, shoving a needle into her arm as a burly man holds her down.

Zarah quiets, and the paramedics secure her to a stretcher and wheel her out of view.

The person filming focuses on Zane who sits stunned, a hand to his cheek.

Clayton adjusts his tie and smooths his jacket.

Nigel Wagner helps Zane to his feet.

The video ends, and the site offers to play another.

“There’s more, different angles, longer clips, but it’s all the same. At the time, I thought that was a pretty strong reaction to you running away with another man, but Zarah saw Black take you, didn’t she?”

I stare at the frame that freezes Nigel gripping Zane’s hand. “Ash was selling her,” I murmur. “I came out of the ladies’ room, and I overheard them. She had...what do you call that kind of thing? Ash had arranged an appointment for her that night. A million dollars, he said. He could get a million dollars a night selling Zarah for sex.”

Denton twists in his seat and scrubs at his face, his jaw covered in whiskers. “Black broke her.”

“What happened after they took her away?”

“Locked her up and threw away the key. She’s been at Quiet Meadows under a doctor’s care all this time.”

“Good God,” I murmur.

Quiet Meadows is a sanatorium located on the outskirts of the city. It sits on a hundred acres and is the best care facility in the United States. The rich and famous check in to dry out. Celebrities who have mental health issues seek treatment there. A famous actress’s mother had a very public struggle with Alzheimer’s and the actress moved her to Quiet Meadows to live out the rest of her days.

“I’m not the only one who’s lost five years of her life.”

“No. Black makes a show of going to see her three or four times a week. Always calls the paparazzi and sets up a photo op. They’re still engaged, according to him.”

“Fuck him. He sold her.”

“How did he do that, Stella? Why would she let him?”

“Ash was threatening her and said Kagan was involved in illegal arms deals. He said if she didn’t do what he wanted, he’d expose her parents as traitors of the United States, tear Maddox Industries down to nothing, and Zane along with it.”

“And she believed him? She didn’t have more faith in her brother and parents?” he asks, the grooves in his face deepening.

“Denton, she was a twenty-year-old girl. He said he had proof. She wanted to protect her brother, and you can’t blame her. I don’t know how many times he sold her before I stopped it. Quite a few, if the bruises on her body were any indication. She always claimed it was Ash being too passionate in bed and told me to mind my own business.”

“That’s why she went ballistic. She thought Black would do the same to you.”

“I wasn’t thinking about myself. I traded places with her because she’s all the family Zane has left. Who am I? No one missed me.”

“That’s not true, but even if it was, it didn’t do much good. Not where she ended up.”

“At least she’s away from Ash. She’s probably safer there. If he wanted her mouth shut, he could have thought of a more permanent solution.”

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