AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Lya, just listen, please.” My eyes are begging her to just hear me out. If I don’t get this out fast, Lya will shut me down. She’s never been one for idle small chat, she likes people to get to the point.
“For nine years, I was in a prison. A cage. I’ve been tortured, abused, used, and beaten, all for the sake of one man’s profit. I never really had freedom, and I never had choices.” Sucking in a gasp, I try to find strength in my voice again. Tears threaten to escape my eyes the more I talk, but I push them back as best as I can.
“When I was in that house, I had two things. My friend Sasha, and books. We weren’t allowed to watch television, we weren’t allowed to read newspapers or magazines, we weren’t allowed phones. Anything that could connect us to the outside world was banned. He couldn’t risk someone finding us. But that monster allowed us to read. He allowed us books, ranging from classics to cheesy romance novels, to science fiction. It’s surprising, but he at least gave us that escape.” From the look on Lya’s face, she’s thinking of all the ways that she can destroy Harvey.
“Reading was an escape from my reality. I could pretend that I was actually in that world, like I wasn’t just some girl sold for sex on a daily basis. It allowed me to be anyone I wanted. It was my freedom, my air, one of the only things keeping me alive.”
Gulping loudly, I continue. My hands are starting to shake so I begin to wring them together out of nervousness. “That’s why I want to start volunteering at the library. I want the freedom to choose the books I read. I want to turn my love for books into something productive, and I want to spend more time outside the house. If I’m ever planning on having a home again in Craibridge, I’d like to get to see more of it and experience it again, like we did as kids.”
My shoulders relax now that I’m done talking. I’ve said my piece, and now it’s up to them. They can either let me do it, or fight me the entire time because I’m not letting this go.
“It’s just not safe. One of us won’t always be able to be with you. There’ll be times we’ll all be busy, I just can’t... I can’t leave you unprotected.” Lya's voice is soft. Any time she talks about wanting to protect me, I see behind her tough shield. When I was taken, it really messed her up, and the thought of it happening again terrifies her.
“No… No!” I argue. “Lya please, haven’t I been through enough? I’m not asking for much. You don’t need to be with me all the time. We’ll check out who’ll be working there and what kind of protection they have in the library, but it’s time to let me have a little wiggle room. I understand your concerns, but if we cover our bases beforehand, it could work.” My voice is echoing through the room now, making me realize I’m getting worked up.
“Everything I’m doing is to make sure you’re alright, Lainey. I’m not trying to keep you from the outside world, I’m trying to keep the outside world from hurting you.”
“You keep saying that, but what are you so afraid of? Harvey? You said there was no way he’d be able to find me, so what is it?”
I need her to explain to me what she knows that I don’t. It feels like I’m missing the bigger picture.
She cuts a glance at Rian and Thiago, who both nod. Standing up, they leave the room, each placing a hand on her shoulder in support as they walk by.
I meet their eyes as they go. Thiago’s are filled with what looks like remorse and uncertainty. Rian’s eyes are full of pain and fury. Their emotions don’t give away anything of value; I’m still sitting here in confusion. If this is about Harvey, they know a lot more than they’ve told me because this seems serious.
“Lainey, I need to talk to you about something. I never wanted to keep this from you, but you weren’t ready.Weweren’t ready. I’m still not sure I’m ready now.” She won’t look at me as she speaks. Her voice is shaky and unsure. I can hear the hurt laced within her soft voice, a big difference from ten minutes ago.
“Whatever it is, it can’t be worse than anything I’ve dealt with before. It’ll be okay. I’m always on your side, no matter what. Since we were kids, it was always us against the world.” I extend my hand to grab hers. She gives mine a squeeze, but then pulls back from me, putting some distance between us.
This is going to be really bad. My gut is screaming at me to run, to get out of the room and stay blissfully ignorant, but my head won’t let me leave without knowing what has her so worked up.
“Before we found you, some things… some pretty bad things happened. It was actually how we were able to find you,” she says vaguely, still not meeting my eyes.
“Okay, care to expand on that?” I huff sarcastically with a little chuckle, but it falls flat.
Lya lifts her head and I see tears swelling behind her eyes.
Good job, Lainey. Crack a joke when your sister is being vulnerable for once.
“There was this guy. A guy that I trusted a lot, someone I had gotten close to. He also got close to the guys, but he was playing us all the entire time. He was pretending to be someone he wasn’t, though he also thought I was someone I wasn’t.”
Everything that she just said only serves to confuse me more. None of it really makes sense, because I’m not sure why this is important.
Her lips are trembling, but she continues. “He was one of our clients at first, but I just felt this strange connection to him. There was something pulling me to him, like we were meant to have our paths cross. He was handsome, charming, and fun to be around. Shit, he even got the guys to accept him into our lives.”
As she speaks, this overwhelming sense of fear creeps up my body. My ears are tingling, and my leg bounces up and down as I get more and more nervous.
“We got closer and became... romantically involved.” Her face morphs into disdain. “I saw him as someone I could have fallen in love with, but then things changed. I was kidnapped by one of my employees, Brandon, who had this strange obsession with the guy I was seeing. He kept telling me the guy was hiding secrets from me, but in the moment, all I could focus on was getting away. Brandon had been sending me threats, telling me to stay away from this guy. He broke my car window, sent me creepy pictures of Tara, he even sent me a severed hand, but I didn’t listen. I was in way too deep at that point.”
What the hell? This guy Brandon seems like a real crazy person. And the entire situation sounds like something you read about in books, but not experience in real life. I can only imagine how hard that was for Lya. She loves Tara probably just as much as she loves me, so I’m sure that was traumatic for her to go through. God, I’ve been over here thinking I was the only one who went through this dark shit.
“Who... Who was the guy you started seeing?” My voice cracks as I ask the question. Every inch of my body is on fire, waiting in anticipation for the answer. Something inside of me is flipping, making me wary. I don’t know many people. It could have been one of the johns I’d been with, or maybe one of Harvey’s employees? I’m honestly not sure.
“I’ll get to that, but there’s more. Once I finally escaped from Brandon, the guys and I went back to try to catch him. He wasn’t there, but we snooped around his apartment. We found this paper with a symbol on it—it was the same symbol I found on a piece of paper when you were taken. I knew he had to be involved with the sex trafficking, but I didn’t know how.”
“I started getting worked up about what Brandon had said when he took me, so I confronted the guy I was seeing. He kept telling me I could trust him, that he would tell me everything, that he wasn’t going to hurt me. Then he took me out to the woods and fucking drugged me. I woke up in a room in this condemned house. He wanted to keep me for himself, but he thought I was someone else. He thought… He thought I was you.” Her voice is barely above a whisper now.
My mind goes to one person, but it can’t be. There’s no way.
