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I squeezed her knee, my voice soft. “Because you loved him.”
Jessica wheezed. “Yes. Brianna did, too. But soon there were more women…more men.”
I felt the barrage of remorse that battered my sister’s soul. “Brianna had been with him the longest and he loved her the most. He gave her the most freedom. He almost seemed to like that she would go home to her husband and then come crawling back to him. She wasn’t well, though, her mind.”
She peeked at me as if she felt guilty for offering the secret.
“Like any of us could really be in that situation. He preyed on it. Preyed on those of us who could be easily manipulated and trained.”
Sadness pulled at her mouth. “But Brianna…her mind was so broken. I didn’t realize it until Jack started keeping us down there for days at a time. I never knew who she was going to be when I saw her.”
Anguish pulled through my senses. God, this was unbearable, listening to what they had been through. Horror curled through me. For all of them. I couldn’t help but feel anger toward Brianna for the hurt she’d caused Ezra and the kids, but how could I blame her for something she likely couldn’t control?
Jessica’s head shook in confusion, her eyes narrowed as she fell back into that time. “There were times when she would act like everything was normal, like we shouldn’t be concerned about what was happening. Other times, she’d…”
Despair pinched Jessica’s face. “She would be in a frenzy, muttering that they were coming for us, that they were going to kill us. I’d ask her who, and she’d only beg me to leave while I still had the chance. It was like she was paranoid, but didn’t she have every reason to be?”
Jessica lifted her gaze to me when she asked that. Like she was begging me to understand.
Then she gave a harsh shake of her head. “If I would have listened, gone to someone, told them what was happening…”
Reaching out, I pried her hand from where she was shredding the tissue. I squeezed it in emphasis. “You were blinded, too.”
The shake of her head slowed in sadness. “That doesn’t make it okay, though, does it? That I was so wrapped up in a man that I’d turn a blind eye to what was happening? I’m just as responsible, Savannah.”
“No, Jessica, you’re not.” But I knew I could tell her it a million times right then and it would likely not make an impact. It was going to take time for her to work through what she’d been through. Time and help and care to work through the trauma that scarred her soul.
My sister let go of a soft though incredulous sound, sniffling around the tears that kept falling. “Brianna used to hide in the corner, frantically scribbling in this journal.”
She trailed off, her attention dipping to our joined hands before she continued, “She left it sitting out, once, and I read it. She’d written in it like she was an entirely different person. A therapist. I knew it was me she was writing about. She had written about all these different places where I’d actually run into her around town in the past, though we’d ignored each other each time because we couldn’t take the chance of being seen together. Jack wouldn’t stand for it. I think…I think it was her way of wishing she could have stopped me from getting involved.”
Jessica choked over a sob that suddenly rolled her throat. “I thought she was crazy, Savannah, but I sometimes wonder if she didn’t know more than all of us. If she hadn’t already seen somewhere deep in her chaotic mind what was getting ready to happen and she was trying to save us from it.”
Her lips pressed thin as she attempted to keep them from trembling. “Because it didn’t take long for things to spiral with Jack. For things to become more depraved.”
“Jessica.” I whimpered it, wishing I could hold all of it for her. But the only thing I could do was be there. I balled her hands in both of mine. Squeezing so tight in silent encouragement.
“There were so many men, Savannah.” Her brow pinched. “Powerful men. Oh, but Jack made sure to create this world where he was the most powerful one. He was the supplier of the depravity, but in it, he held those men’s secrets, and he was going to use them to rise to the top. I’m certain he was blackmailing them. His sordid desires were met in every direction. Gaining wealth, pushing forward his ambitions, and that rush of power he got when he inflicted pain. And that pain got worse and worse. We’d all become basic prisoners. Subject to Jack’s beck and call and every whim. And those whims…”
