Page 50 of The Truth

“Why did they do it?” Dinah asked.

“Because Daddy helped them take all those girls. Daddy and Hezekiah helped Father Rei take all those girls. I… watched them do it once. Hezekiah made me stay in the truck, but… I saw them do it once. When I was thirteen.”

“And that backpack Father Rei brought?”

“I found it, and I buried it. But… I took some of the money, Dinah. More… a lot more than I told Daddy about. And I kept it.”

“Judah, whose money did you use to buy this house?” Were they living in a house built onblood?Her stomach turned just to think about it.

“I usedmymoney for the house, Dinah. I promise. It was money I earned working on Jeremiah’s farm. It wasmine.This house ismine,no matter what Daddy’s said.”

“So what happened to Father Rei’s money?”

I hid it. For… later. And I’m going to use it. I’m going to go away. Forever. You should too. I’ll give you some of the moneyso you can go away, too. Don’t stay here. Don’t let him ruin your life, please. He’s going to make you marry Jeremiah. As soon as he gets you to Idaho. He said you have no choice, and Jeremiah can punish you if you don’t do what he says.”

Sheer terror went through her. Jeremiah horrified her. He just did. “What’s in that bag, Judah?”

“Notebooks. Lists. An old phone. Things… things I think the FBI was looking for three years ago, but I was too scared to give them. I didn’t want Daddy and Hezekiah to get in trouble. I was… afraid of what would happen to us.”

But would it have been so bad if theyhad? She and her mother would have found a way to take care of themselves and Judah. And… they would have been justfine.

“I think Daddy is going to kill me someday.”

Dinah felt something break loose in her chest. Just… destroy her in that moment.

She felt the same way, too. Judah wouldn’t survive their father forever. And neither would she. She had her own bruises, after all. She stood slowly and reached for a clean towel.

She had to think. They couldn’t keep living this way.

36

Ayla pokedaround Gunn's church, her fingers tracing the edge of the worn wooden bookshelf in the corner. He'd brought her here with him and Emerson this morning, and she seriously doubted that beautiful blue-eyed man from Nebraska had slept even a moment last night. He and Gunn were quieter now, huddled in the office going through records, searching for possible names for Ronnie’s brother—the FBI agent one. That guy was a seriously funny wackadoodle who liked to tease people. He was also Jake's brother-in-law and had told her just yesterday that Jake had officially adopted her as a baby sister. So she had to deal with Cam now, too.

She'd been poking around the church while they worked. The refrigerator held sodas he'd told her he'd bought a few days ago, and there were microwave pizza rolls in the small freezer if she wanted a snack. She suspected her preacher man might have a junk food addiction—she'd found snack cakes in the kitchen cabinet, too.

Now, at the table in that kitchen, she flipped through some children's books she'd found in the corner. Most were religious stories—Daniel & the Scary Lion, Joseph's Rainbow Coat—butsome were more secular with good moral lessons. Including a fewWonkus McBubbles, of course. ThatWonkus, he sure got around.

She could hear the sounds of Emerson and Gunn talking now. She gathered her found bounty—three cans of soda in a plastic bag, and the snack cakes she'd tossed in there too—and decided to take care of her man. And his bestie-4-eva.

She hated seeing how both of them were hurting. They were good men who cared about their neighbors. They didn't deserve this chaos.

She knocked on the office door lightly and waited until Gunn met her at the door.

"I have brought supplies," she said, holding up her bag of treasures.

"You're amazing," he said, taking the bag from her. "We’ll probably be a few more hours. I have a retired minister coming to join us. He’s from Coleson Hollow. Reverend Hunter. He goes by Pastor Wil.”

“Okie dokie, I shall play in your flower beds for a while. They have been tempting, and well… I have been led into gardening temptation. Aub and I are going to have replant our flowers, too. That butthead yanked them all out that night. As soon as she’s up to it, we’ll go to the nursery and get what we want. We like to pick out flowers together.”

“We’ll pick some out for here, if you’d like. I can help you plant them. We can do it together.”

She wanted to do as many thingstogetherwith him as she possibly could. Forever.

“I would like that very much. Consider it adate,Reverend Hiller.”

“Great. We can hit the nursery sometime soon, then I’ll bring you down here and we’ll picnic by the river, how does that sound?”

“Very romantic, actually. The river is beautiful.” Gunn’s church sat in a small bend in the river—well, if it could be called that. It was the original Finley Creek the nearby county was named after. It emptied into the Value Reservoir a few miles up the road from where they were now. It was very…idyllic, this little church, its tiny cemetery, and the river behind it. Beautiful, really.

---