Page 54 of Butterfly 6, Phase 1

“What?” Morgan said, brow frowning in fake confusion. “Reported by who?”

“Apparently, they made plans to be back in London, and they never showed. Haven’t paid their estate manager, their driver, and their mail has gone unchecked. It seems their life has just gone dormant, like they aren’t living it at all.”

“Oh gosh, I really hope things are okay. The first thing that comes to mind is the Fredericks are a very notable family, and they’re private. Bash and I were set to be married. Announcements were made. Walking away from a public engagement was embarrassing for him, for their family name. It’s no big deal over here, but in London, it’s just not what they do. It wouldn’t surprise me if Christiana is letting this blow over, but it isn’t like her to leave important things undone, so I don’t know. I’m sorry that I can’t be more helpful, but…” Morgan shrugged, leaving her sentence unfinished.

The look of frustration on their faces told Morgan that they had expected to receive something more substantial from her.

“Last question, Ms. Atkins, then we can send you on your way,” Good Cop said. “Is there some place we should be looking?”

Morgan sighed and shook her head slowly as she pretended to ponder for a moment. “I mean, they’re one of the wealthiest families in the UK. If they don’t want to be found, they won’t. I guess I’m looking at it from a standpoint of why they wouldn’t want to be found, you know? Is a broken engagement enough to make you abandon your whole life? If what you guys are saying is true, and they just dropped everything? That doesn’t give missing to me. Seems like they’re running. What could they have done to make them run and leave everything? I was lucky to leave the relationship without consequence. People don’t just walk away from a family with that much power and money. You should be asking about the girls who came before me, who may not have been so lucky. We live in a world where the victim is judged. When will you do your jobs and make women feel seen and heard? Every day, a man like Bash silences a girl like me, and nobody does anything about it. I’m sorry you can’t find him, but I’m just grateful that I didn’t end up as a name on a file in some federal document somewhere that’s tucked away in somebody’s desk. The Fredricks are no better than an Epstein. Maybe there is a reason they’ve fled and don’t want to be in touch with law enforcement.”

Morgan saw the light bulbs go off as she planted a seed of doubt in the minds of the detectives. Morgan also knew that they had a reason to run. The royal family wasn’t as clean as they pretended to be. Morgan hadn’t been their first victim. Bash had hurt other women before, and if the police narrowed their lens enough, she prayed it threw them off. Now they had a second theory that would grow in their investigation.

“If we have more questions, we’ll ask your client to come back in,” Bad Cop said.

“We’ll be more than willing to cooperate. Best of luck, detectives,” Einstein concluded.

Morgan walked out, head high.

“Not one word until you’re behind the tint of your vehicle,” Einstein stated.

Ethic stood waiting in the lobby, and the relief that flooded his face when he saw her told her that he had been more worried than he let on.

He shook Einstein’s hand. “She did beautifully,” Einstein stated. “Smart young lady you raised. Time to move this thing into phase B.”

Ethic nodded, and he and Morgan made their way out of the precinct, side by side.

They didn’t speak until they were inside his truck.

“You did good, Mo,” Ethic stated.

“Their bills aren’t being paid. The home is unmanaged. That’s how they got wind that something was wrong,” Morgan informed.

Ethic started the car, but he was silent. She saw him thinking, brooding.

“I said something in there, and I’m not sure if it makes it better or worse,” Morgan admitted.

“What did you say?” Ethic asked. “There was a script. Einstein shouldn’t have let you say anything outside of that.”

“The Fredrick family is dangerous, and I insinuated so,” Morgan revealed.

“I vetted them inside out when you went to London. Nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing, pointed to the possibility of them being a threat,” Ethic said. “You were supposed to be safer there. Flint eats Atkins girls alive. I hoped London would expose you to new opportunities, let you see the world through a broader scope. It’s like I can’t figure out what’s best for you, Mo. I try to give you the world, and the world swallows you whole. You’re so much like your sister, and that’s a beautiful thing, but that can be a dangerous thing in a lot of ways. She didn’t come to me when she should have either. She would still be here if she did. I don’t know why Benny’s daughters can’t fully comprehend that I would walk across a desert and swim the length of oceans to get to y’all. It’s heartbreaking, Morgan.”

Morgan processed the way he spoke of Raven now. It was less frequent, and it was different than the way he used to. Raven was just a memory for Ethic now. She could tell. The pain in his voice wasn’t as potent, and there were no testaments of undying love spoken. Raven was a ghost of his past and the mother of his child. To her surprise, Morgan was proud of Ethic for closing that hurtful chapter. For so long, she was jealous and resentful that Alani had come along and taken Raven’s place, but Alani had come along and healed a whole family. Morgan hadn’t been able to relate to the loss of a lover before, but when she had lived under the guise of Messiah’s loss, she understood Alani’s significance. She respected Ethic’s need to love again, without judgment. Alani was Ethic’s Ahmeek. She had come along and healed an unbearable ache, and though the scar remained, the infection that had been slowly robbing him of joy, of life, was healed. She prayed to know that kind of healing and peace one day.

“I know that you will,” Morgan said softly. “I guess I just didn’t realize I was in over my head until I was drowning. I needed distance.” Morgan paused because this next part wasn’t easy to admit aloud. “I was mad at you,” Morgan finally admitted. “For marrying Alani and being happy. We were always sad together. We grieved together, and then you met her, and of course, I understand it now, but back then, it was like you left me in a dark room with no windows alone. Messiah was gone. I was pregnant and embarrassed and…” Morgan paused, shaking her head as words escaped her. “Empty,” she finished. “London was an escape from everything bad that had happened to me. My problems would have to catch a whole flight to reach me over there. I didn’t realize that I was going from bad to worse. By the time I realized I was in trouble, Bash’s mom had too much over my head for me to ask for help. By the time I realized that I didn’t want the life they were offering, leaving was no longer an option. The other girl,” Morgan said. “I really think Bash killed her, Ethic,” Morgan whispered. “Christiana warned me that I could be disposed of just as easily.” Morgan fiddled with her fingers because it unnerved her to be this frank with Ethic. Disappointing him was the same as failing, and Morgan had always been afraid of letting him down. One day, he would get tired of her shortcomings and decide she wasn’t worth all the trouble. At least that was what she had always feared.

“I don’t know how to feel about the fact that you didn’t come home,” Ethic said, turning his body against the driver door so he could face Morgan. Fire. He felt it. Saw it. It burned the interior of the car at this revelation. “Everything I’ve said to you over the years just hasn’t stuck. All the ‘I love you’s, all the ‘I’ll protect you’s, all the ‘you belong to me’s. You didn’t trust me with this. I’ve misstepped somewhere if you think I wouldn’t scorched hell twice over you.”

Ethic shook his head. “We could have avoided so much of this,” he said somberly. “I asked you, Morgan. I called, and I tried to visit, and you pushed me away. I stayed up every night worrying, debating if I had done the right thing by letting you go to London. You said you were happy. Why wouldn’t you come to me for help? How am I supposed to let you be out here in the world with them babies if you don’t know how and when to call your army, Morgan? Your daddy might be in a grave, but you aren’t fatherless. A father protects his children. I erase everybody over mine. You should have come to me.” Ethic was adamant, hissing his regrets over not activating sooner.

“I thought I could handle it. I was okay for a while. I was far away from the ghosts of this city. My daddy, Raven, Messiah, and things were okay. It didn’t start out bad. I probably made them bad. I started seeing Ahmeek, and Ethic,” she had to pause to take a breath at just the mention of his name. “He made me want to come home. He felt like home. Wherever he was, was where I felt safe and seen. He didn’t even have to try. He just showed up after two years, and I knew I didn’t want to go another two years without him. He made me feel like there was life after everything I had lost, like there was a reason for surviving. He was a light at the end of a dark tunnel, and I just got sucked into this love affair.” Morgan shook her head, closing her eyes as her brow furrowed. Memory lane took her back to London. The moment he came out of the bathroom in his finest suit, Morgan felt the relief that she had been chasing her whole life. It was like she had finally been rescued, and not just from Messiah. From life. From grief. From the loss of her daddy. From the resentment of her mother, and from Raven’s ghost. The way he looked at her sent a silent message that he had searched high and low, and finally, she could return home. A soul hijacked by grief since she was six years old was liberated, at last. “He is so patient with me,” she continued. “And I should have just ended things with Bash, but it was fucked up, and Bash was trying so hard at first. I felt bad about how I was carrying it, and he begged me to just stay and try. It felt like I owed them. I didn’t realize I was trapped until I decided to be with Ahmeek. I told Bash I was done, and that’s when I found out how fucked up his family was. That’s when the threats came. I wanted to tell you, but I was already stuck. I told them things about you that should have never left my lips. I told them about Alani and about Kenzie, about our family.”

“Those things could have sent me to prison, Mo. Did that ever cross your mind?” Ethic asked.

Morgan thought of the therapy sessions where she had spoken on Ethic, and she couldn’t lie to him. “Right after the words left my mouth, I knew they were never supposed to be spoken,” she admitted. “I was in therapy, and it was just there, it’s kind of always there, sitting on my shoulders, knowing I caused all this trauma…”

“What’s always there, Mo? I don’t understand.” Ethic searched for clarity in what Morgan was too ashamed to speak, but he needed her to make it plain.