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His voice sounded growly when he answered, “They stay to themselves, Red. That’s how. And with your mother involved, no one was lookin’ for you.”
“I had a few friends in college who promised to keep in touch after graduation.”
“The Ohio fuckers keep your cell phone?”
“Yes.” Autumn closed her eyes. That was how no one would look for or worry about her. If any of her friends called, her mother could’ve made excuses.
That was so screwed up.
“Vernon already had three wives since he was the leader. I have no idea how many kids he has. At least a dozen since I heard a lot running around and screaming in that house. It was always noisy. He ordered one of his wives to take care of me. One day when they released me long enough to eat, shower and use the bathroom, I pushed her down. I ran through the house, trying to escape.” Breathe. “Vernon’s son caught me, knocked me out and when I woke up, I was locked in that damn shed again.”
Sig jerked against her and his breathing sped up.
“Even after that, their fucked up minds still thought if I had a baby, I’d want to stay. They were so wrong, Sig. So wrong. The youngest wife, Anna, who wasn’t much older than Tomlin, got beaten for letting me almost escape, so she hated me. And she was the one tasked with my care. She was also jealous of me, worried that if Vernon... if he planted his seed in me, he’d make me his fourth wife.”
“Jesus,” he growled.
“Eventually, I convinced her that was true. That once the... the... seed came, Vernon was moving me into the house and taking me as his wife since Anna had disappointed him. I told her that her husband came and visited me a lot late at night and we talked when he did. And he promised once the... the seed was here I would replace her since she didn’t listen, he said she was stupid and ugly, and because of that he was giving her to his younger son, instead. By no longer being Vernon’s wife, she’d lose her power in the clan because Tomlin had no power of his own.”
“Did he?”
She blinked, bringing herself back to the apartment. “Did he what?”
“Visit you a lot?”
“No, I had lied about it all. Once Vernon was sure his seed had taken, he stopped... visiting. He never saw how much weight I lost. Never saw she had removed the little bedding I’d been given, never saw that I had no clothes... Never saw the bruises.”
Vernon never saw the weight she had lost from her refusing to eat. The bruises from Anna kicking her when she wouldn’t. The welts from the whip she’d sometimes use. The marks she got from Tomlin forcing her to eat.
Anna actually wanted Autumn to miscarry but wouldn’t go that far and risk the wrath of her husband. If she caused Autumn to lose Vernon’s seed, then she could very well be killed by him.
She eventually convinced the youngest wife that if she allowed Autumn to escape, she’d never see her or the baby again. That her position as Vernon’s wife would be safe. She even convinced Anna that she should hurry up and get pregnant again to secure that spot.
Luckily, Anna’s mental capacity had been limited so she was easy to manipulate. But it took time and patience. And being locked up in that shed, Autumn had the first, just not the last.
Chapter Sixteen
She just stopped talking. Like she had nothing left to say. Sig was pretty fucking sure there was a hell of a lot more to tell him.
He worried about pushing her, but he couldn’t get that shed and that bench out of his fucking head. “He stopped comin’. How long did it take for him to stop the visits?”
“I don’t know. I started losing track of time in the shed. For a while I tried to pay attention to when the sun came up and when the day turned dark, when the shed became pitch black. But there ended up being too many to count. Way too many. But Vernon visited almost every night for weeks, until...”
“Yeah.” Until she was knocked up. “Then he stopped completely?”
“Yes. My guess was his three other wives weren’t happy about his nightly visits.”
So, it had been months since that motherfucker violated Red. But her nightmare didn’t end there with those “breedings.”
“Anyone else visit?
It took her way too fucking long to answer. “Just Anna and Tomlin.”
Either that was a lie or she wasn’t sure. But Sig’s nostrils flared at that little bastard’s name. “Did he...”
“No. He only came when Anna made him force me to eat. Once Vernon took me away from him, he was the only one who was allowed to... touch me.”
