Page 37 of Claimed
“It’s all awful,” her twin said.
Katie went on to explain how she had found all of this extra strength and picked Alexia up and practically dragged herto that bus stop Bam had referred to. Katie then found Alexia’s cell phone on her and called 911. The ambulance came. She knew it was best to just go home, but one of the EMTs, a young guy, invited her to ride along. Something about his eyes and her friend’s condition made her go with them.
When they arrived at the hospital, she sat in the waiting room, afraid that Bam would show up. Heused to punish them by whipping them with a rod then starving them for a week. She’d endured the punishment once before. Although she could tolerate it, she hated suffering through it. The first person who showed up to talk to her was the EMT. She was intimidated and scared of his maleness, but he kept asking her questions about what had happened. It got to the point where he had to ask her to pleaselook him in the eyes. She hadn’t noticed she wasn’t doing that. When their gazes met, she saw something different about him. He wasn’t the sort of pig who would come to the house and study the women as if he were shopping for pussy. He urged her to tell him the truth about who she was and why she’d been in those woods.
She told the EMT that she couldn’t tell him, or she’d get in trouble.He took her to a private space in the hospital and convinced her that there was no one there but the two of them. This was the time to confess. All she could say was that she lived in a house with very bad people, and they didn’t know she was missing. Then the EMT got a call on his radio, telling him that the police and the girl’s father were ready to speak to Katie.
“I grabbed his arm,holding it tight. There was something in me that wanted to fight for my life, so I just gushed,” Katie said.
She told him that she didn’t have a father and that she lived in a house where women were forced to have sex with men for money. She had never known her real parents, had never gone to school, and didn’t even have a real name.
The EMT believed her and radioed back that hecouldn’t locate Katie. He gave her his address and asked if she knew how to find it. She was forced to admit that she couldn’t read letters, only numbers.
“I probably should’ve been embarrassed about it, but I wasn’t even normal enough to get it. He told me to not leave that room. It was the office of a doctor friend who was out for the day. The EMT came back to get me, and we’ve been togetherever since. He’s my boyfriend, Zach. He was an EMT then, but now he’s a resident doctor at Our Lady of Grace Hospital in Queens.”
Zach had taught Katie how to read at a twelfth-grade level, and three years later, she attended adult school. She eventually received her GED. But they had to leave Tennessee to keep her in hiding. She had two names—one was Eve. It was the one she and Zach hadmade up. If someone were to come looking for her, using that name, she and Zach knew to get far away from where they were.
“Holly found me. She called that friend of mine who overdosed when we were younger and asked about me. The only reason Zach and I didn’t skip town was because Alexia swore that Holly was harmless. Her mother, Nel, had liked Holly. Plus, when I googled her, I saw thatshe wrote two books that were real popular, so she wasn’t cut from the same cloth as Bam, the Arthurs, and the others.”
Bryn and Katie had already discussed their father. Only Katie had known him as Arthur. Finally, Bryn had to ask the one question that made her want to throw up right there and then. “Did Arthur ever fuck you?”
Katie shook her head. “He never fucked me, but he wantedto. Instead, he would fondle me.”
Bryn clutched her stomach. That sick feeling was back as she recalled how Randolph had fondled her. “He tried that shit with me, too, but Jasper stopped him.”
Katie narrowed her eyes at Bryn’s hand then looked into her eyes. “I felt sick too,” Katie whispered.
They stared at each other. The fact that Katie was sitting across from her feltsurreal to Bryn. Perhaps the time had come to tell her about their mother. If only she had a better tale to spin about the woman who had given birth to them.
Bryn sighed and decided to just get on with it. “Our mother’s name was Amelia, and she was checked out my whole life. I mean, I might as well not have existed as far as she was concerned. I was raised mostly by nannies.” She said itso fast that now she was dizzy.
Katie shook her head adamantly. “If your mom is my mom, then why did your brother’s girlfriend ask if I knew my mother? I mean, I thought that they must have thought I was the one who lived with our mother and you lived with our father.”
Bryn’s mouth fell open. She was about to insist that Katie had heard Holly wrong when she remembered that beforedying, Amelia had said she had nothing to apologize for in regards to being a shitty mother. Bryn wondered if what Amelia had slyly confessed was that she couldn’t apologize for being a shitty mother because she wasn’t Bryn’s mother at all.
Bryn slumped in her chair, a bit weakened by the strong possibility that Amelia had never been her mother. Holly’s face came to mind. She had askedher to the Christmas mansion to pull the scabs off her family’s secrets, andshit—Holly had done that and more.
“When Holly asked you about your mother, what did you say?”
Katie hesitated, studying her. Bryn decided to sit up and take the truth like a strong woman.
“I told her I thought my mother was someone named Beth,” Katie replied. ”But she wasn’t too different from theAmelia woman. It was as if Beth’s whole body was numb, and definitely, her brain and heart were.”
“What did she look like?” Bryn was eager to know.
“She had light hair, strawberry blond, like you and me. And pale skin.”
“Also like us,” Bryn whispered.
The heavy silence lingered for a few beats.
“Amelia had dark hair and Jasper’s unique eyes,” Bryn finally said.
Katie snorted. “He’s very…”
“Beautiful,” Bryn finished for her.
“Yes. I can hardly believe we’re related.”
