Page 84 of Like An Animal
“Who are they?” he asks, his voice disarming.
“The Fathers of Jephthah. They told the story from the bible of Jephthah who promised to sacrifice the first thing to walk through the doorway but what ended up walking through was his daughter. They used the story and twisted it for their benefit. It’s a cult of pedophiles. When someone joins, they’re expected to sign away their children and every future child in their family into sex trafficking. Whoever wants to hurt them can and no one is there to save them. Four years old is the age for initiation. When I was initiated, I was raped by all six men and four women in that room. That’s what was on that tape. They record every initiation and keep it to hold as a warning for if any of the children ever run away. They sent it because they know me and Charlotte are here. I’ve been running from them since Charlotte was a month old.”
And I’ll never escape them. They will always be there haunting my dreams. They’re a shadow cast over me and Charlotte.
“What?” Jeremy’s inflection changes, almost as if he’s choked up.
I look up at him and see something in his eyes akin to heartbreak.
“What do you mean you’ve been running from them since she was a month old?” His knuckles trace along my jaw as my bottom lip trembles.
“Because I have been. I was given a reprieve for four years in the shape of you, but they were very mad about it.” A part of me wonders if I should tell him about the deal I struck with The Fathers, but I decide against it. It will just cause more pain than necessary. It doesn’t mean anything anymore. “They came to collect me three days after you were arrested. They tookme in the dead of night to their compound and I didn’t leave until a month after Charlotte was born. I was punished for my disobedience. That’s where the scars on my back came from. They would beat me until I couldn’t hold my body up anymore and then the true horrors would begin…”
CHAPTER 35
THE SHADOW
Idon’t know what is happening to me, but as Bronwyn tells me what those fucking monsters did to her, my mind fractures.
My wife.
My little ghost.
My Bronwyn.
She went through so much hell and… now it all makes sense. This is why she was so upset when she found out I wasn’t in prison all this time. It’s because while I was in New Jersey preparing to take over for my grandfather, she was being tortured for the crime of my protection.
My beautiful, perfect, bratty woman went through the worst torment imaginable and where the fuck was I?
Where.
The.
Fuck.
Was.
I?
Iwasn’t there.
Iwasn’tthere.
I wasn’tthere.
When I thought she was safe in Grove Hill, she was really living through everything I was protecting her from.
I don’t know how I went from holding her in my arms to kneeling in front of her, my arms wrapped around her legs, my face buried between her thighs. My tears soak her dress as she runs her fingers through my hair as if she’s trying to soothe me.
That’s so fucking ridiculous considering what she just spoke about in detail.
I failed her.
I never should’ve listened to my grandfather. I should’ve walked into that interrogation room and dragged her out of there. I should’ve told her we were going straight to Newark and no one else would ever hurt her again.
I should’ve told her how deeply and madly in love with her I have always been, that I’ve been stuck on her since the first time I laid eyes on her. I should’ve told her that I’d kill anyone who wronged her.
I should have.
