Page 11 of Hacker Identified

"Technically, he was family," Kat added.

Sophie rolled her eyes. "We aren't going to debate our deadbeat uncle."

Kat shrugged. "No mission is easy, and I'm always ready to eliminate an evil person. I love raising my beautiful kids, but part of me still cannot let go of the adrenaline rush I experience while working an op. So, do you still want us to let you go and not help?"

Four sets of eyes stared me down. "Okay, I'll stay for now. But don't you think it's a horrible idea for Zack and me to say we are engaged? What happens if he decides to run for some office again? My name ties back to the Crimson Creed organization."

"Cult, not organization," Sophie said.

She was spot on.

Patty held up a bottle of wine and some glasses. "Well, I think we should have some drinks while Hannah tells us how she ended up engaged to Zack. Then you can tell us a little about your dad. For the record, I binged the latest documentary series on your father and the compound in Virginia. I want to know how they recruit women and men. Does anyone ever leave? I planned to do a computer probe into their network after the last documentary, but then I ended up getting a call from the Prime Minster of France and got sidetracked."

I never took a moment of my time to view the series about my dad and the Crimson Creed Cult on Netflix. They were both directed, written, and produced by members of the cult. Each release was timed too perfectly. If I had to guess, they were puff pieces my father had created to steer the media in the direction he wanted. They didn’t show reality.

Until I was thirteen, I’d lived in the main house during the summer. The hundred-acre compound had five large apartment-like buildings and two warehouses. Armed guards walked the property lines and manned the towers. My mother shielded us from our father's temper when we were younger and made sure we never explored the forbidden areas, but on my tenth birthday, everything changed. I woke up to my parents screaming at each other. That same day my father’s second-in-command led the FBI into the house and mom was arrested during dinner. A few hours later she was pictured on the news in handcuffs.

With Mom gone, Dad required many of the women in the compound to stay in our house and occupy his bed. It didn't matter if they were married. He also started to have more business meetings around us and stopped hiding his illegal trade deals. Hazel and I had listened closely to each conversation. We knew Mom never committed the crimes she was charged with and wanted to prove her innocence.

Right after my thirteenth birthday, Hazel snuck into my room in the middle of the night. My sister had told me she saw Dad and a group of his men drag Frances down the hall of the mansion and out the back door. Hazel and Frances were close friends, being only a few months apart in age. Except Frances was eighteen years old. I told Hazel to go back to bed. Dad had upped the security on our home, and it was too dangerous for us to go look for her.

My sister said she planned to collect evidence against my father. We argued for a while longer, but she wouldn't back down. Before she left my room, she’d hugged me and said she loved me more than anything.

The next morning, she never came down for breakfast.

Dad told me she left a note on the counter that she ran away. I demanded to see the note and he slapped me across the face and told me to learn my place. The story about Frances was in the front of my mind and after breakfast I headed for the woods, knowing they were off-limits to anyone but my dad's men. A guard stopped me and dragged me to my father's office. Dad pulled a knife from the top drawer of his desk. When he was only a foot away from me, he pressed the cold blade against my cheek and told me the next time I disobeyed his orders, I would die. I hesitated for only a split second and the metal sliced through my flesh, causing a long wound down my cheek. He tied me to the chair for a day and let me think about my actions. When I was released, I wasn't allowed to treat the cut and to this day every time I looked in the mirror I thought of my father.

He told me if I ever stepped foot in those woods again, he would kill me. I never got a chance to try, because the next day he shipped me to our New York home. I caught a few conversations about how he performed rituals on the far back section of the land. The women escorted to these ceremonies never returned.

He never allowed me to go back to the compound. A month before I turned eighteen, I witnessed a heated discussion with his second-in-command about taking me to the back section of the woods. Then afterward they could build over it. I knew that would make the evidence I needed disappear. Hell, the years of weather had probably caused any sign of my sister’s death to be washed away.

I escaped that night and hitchhiked to Virginia. Guards still patrolled the area, so I found a rare flower and planted it near the same section, but on what was now Zack's land. I then sent an anonymous tip to the wildlife association about the flower. This made the land protected.

My next stop was the FBI office, where I told them everything I’d witnessed over the years. Except no matter how much they tried, no judge would sign a search warrant. An agent told me they’d attempted to fly a drone over the land, but Dad installed technology along the fence line which blocked the communication signal.

"I've seen that look before," Sophie said. "You're thinking about all the shit you have on your father."

I winced, realizing I'd spaced out again. Darlene applied color to the last section of my hair.

"Yes, I was thinking about my father. I can never bring my sister back to life, but I wish I could have proven my mom's innocence. She was the one who made sure we went to a boarding school and were able to leave the compound growing up. Looking back, I was mad when she made us go to school in another state. We had to leave our friends at the compound each year."

Patty snatched the bottle of wine and filled my glass to the rim. "No mother would want her kids around a cult. My guess is she couldn't escape. You never said if anyone ever leaves."

"People disappeared, but I think they were killed. The men work for all my father's corporations, and the women are there to serve the men. Haven Ridge is riddled with deep, dark secrets. The only reason I was able to keep a close eye on the zoning was that I befriended someone on the internet that worked at City Hall. We've never met in person, but we are friends online. She has no clue who I really am."

For the next hour, we chatted more about the cult, and I answered any questions they had. I left out the part about the ritual and my sister's death. I hadn't wanted to share those details yet. Darlene continued to work and applied another round of dye to my hair.

Sophie left a couple times with her phone pressed to her ear. Kat and Annabella told stories about their time visiting Patty.

Darlene cleared her throat. "Okay, I can do your makeup while the treatment to relax your curls does its magic."

If Zack wouldn't change his mind, I needed to learn how to cover my scar. "Can you teach me how to hide this?"

"Yes, but I planned to do a more natural look on you. Your skin is almost perfect," Darlene said.

"Almost is the key word. None of you understand what it is like to live with a scar down your cheek. People constantly make comments and remarks. A few college boys even told me I would be hot if I wasn't marked. It makes me feel hideous." The room went deadly silent, and I wasn't sure what I said wrong.

Annabella snatched her phone off the table and flashed a photo of her and John. "So, you're telling me my husband is ugly."

---