Page 66 of Born to Scar

“Yes, it would be. There was a call from that house at least once a week for a long time.”

Ken nods. “Yeah, but there’s more than only from your house.”

“How did you get this information?” she asks.

Ken looks at me like I’m supposed to answer that question. “Dude, you’re the one who got it. Tell her what you can. I can’t answer that.”

“I have connections that allow me to get information that most people don’t have access to,” he answers.

She quirks her brow and stares at him. “What do you know?”

“He did some dirty work for the Chief of Police, which afforded him a free pass to do whatever he wanted. It’s why you never received the help you needed. The station would file all the reports away. The doctors were a part of the chief’s payroll. That’s why you only ever saw those doctors. I’ve looked into them. Most are out of practice, and some are dead.”

“What the fuck did he do that would allow him to do this?” Indy holds her arm up, showing her scars. “Or this?” she seethes, pulling her shirt up her stomach and spinning to show him her back. “Not just to me, but to my sister and my mother.”

Pain crosses Ken’s face. His eyes briefly squeeze closed. “He got away with that because of the expertly executed story of suicidal ideation that he created for you and Jennifer.”

“Jenny. She went by Jenny,” Indy whispers.

“That story is so iron-clad that I even had trouble finding the loopholes. He put a lot of thought and work into curating that story in a way where he could continue to abuse you freely.”

“So, I guess the whip was just a punishment. The cutting was the story.”

“Whip?” Ken asks.

Indy spins, lifting her shirt again. “Those are whip marks. A punishment meant for only me.”

Ken shakes his head in disbelief and sighs. “To answer your question, he killed and disposed of the chief’s wife in an undisclosed location. It seems that the chief wanted to make his fling, who was fifteen years younger than him, his wife. Though they never married. She left him, and he’s been alone ever since.”

Indy snickers. “Good. He deserves that. He deserves worse, but if nothing else, he deserves that.”

“Jennifer—”

“Jenny,” Indy corrects.

Ken looks at me. “She will correct you every time,” I confirm, and she nods.

“Jenny filed several reports on your behalf after she turned eighteen.” Ken stops when he notices Indy’s wide eyes.

“She did? She never told me that.”

Ken nods, “She was trying like hell to get you out of there or to have him caught. Anything. She was trying everything she could think of.”

“Indy, we think he found out what she was doing. At first, it was a theory, but we have a report that he lost his mind at the station the night…” I stop myself. “While everything he did was swept under the rug, they still did their due diligence on keeping records and reports.”

“He killed her. He killed her because she was trying to protect me from him.” Her skin pales, and tears rim her eyes. “I killed her,” she whispers, her bottom lip trembling. “I got her killed.”

Her tears fall over her cheeks. I’m gutted. There’s nothing we can say to make her feel any different. That’s exactly how I would feel, too. It’s absolutely gut-wrenching watching her fall apart.

Jared pulls her into his chest, and she melts into him. “No, sweet girl, no. You didn’t.”

“I’m going to get you all killed,” she sobs.

“Indy, no. Stop. None of this is your fault. He no longer has all the control. You have a say now.”

“Not if it gets you killed.”

“Do you remember when you said that night was different? You already knew. You knew there was a reason he was being the way he was. This is why,” I interject so they don’t get into an unnecessary argument. “Indy, there is something else.”