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Fuck, I love it when she calls me that.
“Do you want us to hear it, Kitten?” Shaun asks, and she turns her dark eyes to him and shrugs. “Is there something in particular you’re worried about us hearing?”
She nods and takes a deep breath before she speaks. “I’m scared that when you hear the whole truth, you will think differently about me… and about what we have together.”
“No way, Baby Girl. There ain’t anything that will change how deeply I love you.”
Fuck.
Garrett Cole is a broody, quiet mofo most of the time, but when he has something to say, it’s always honest and meaningful.
“I’m with Gaz, Rhee. I’m all in no matter what, and if you don’t want us listening to the podcast, then, like Hastings said, we will respect your wishes.” Marcus turns Rhys in his arms and cups her face, looking at her with so much love that I have to fight back fucking tears. “Can I just say, though, that if we know everything about your past, it might make it easier for us to understand what’s going on.”
Cherry visibly swallows hard like she has a lump in her throat, her white teeth biting the corner of her lower lip as she stares up into Marcus’ eyes. Then she nods. “Ok. Let's all listen to it.” She declares quietly, and I silently sigh in relief, realising just how much I needed her to share this with us. To trust us with her truth.
While Cherry connects her phone to the speaker, I lock the door, so my mum can’t barge in, and we all get comfy on the couch. Like earlier, when we had a Charlie and Lola marathon, we all surround our girl like she’s the queen of our hive. Garrett grabs her by the hips before the rest of us can, dragging her to sit between his legs, tugging her back against his chest. I hover as I watch Shaun and Marcus take each side on the couch next to Cherry and Gaz, and I’m oddly ok with having the only spot left to be near her.
Her feet. I fucking love Cherry’s feet.
As we all get settled, Cherry clicks the link on her phone, and a moment later, a soft, husky female voice comes through the speakers.
Welcome to another episode of Breaking the Silence. I am Hush, and today I have a dark and heartbreaking story to share. Please be warned, this story involves illegal acts with a minor that includes molestation and child pornography.
As with all of my podcasts, the names of victims and some people have been changed to protect their identity, but the known names of the abusers and criminals will remain the same.
This story takes place in Victoria, Australia. A young girl, no older than nine years old, getting thrown into the foster system after the death of her mother. Like with all of my podcasts, we will refer to this girl as V.
V thought foster parents were there to care for her. They certainly seemed friendly enough while the Child Services workers were with them and most of the time when they were in public. But behind closed doors, V was subject to a different version of her so-called carers.
V was a victim to some of the most heinous acts while in the foster care system. One carer liked to slam V’s fingers in the cupboard doors when she did something wrong. Another would force her to eat mouldy and off food while keeping the good food for herself and then forcing V to clean up her own vomit every time she got sick. One simply didn’t feed her, and another made her steal for them. V says that the carers that would slap or hit her were almost better than the ones who would try to think up disgusting punishments like being put in timeout in the toilet room every time the carer passed a bowel motion.
Poor V was subjected to such vile things, and one day when she was maybe ten years old, she was put in yet another home, and V came across someone who was nice to her. She had only ever wanted to be loved. To be cared for. And while her new foster mum, Julie Bates, was nasty to her, her new foster dad, Brian Bates, was loving and caring. Every time Julie would lose her temper at V, Brian would protect her from Julie. He would take V and play games with her, take her to the park, feed her good food and buy her the nicest clothes she’d ever worn. She quickly relied on Brian and felt safe with him.
He would hug her when she was scared, upset, or just needed a hug. He would bathe and shower her, making sure she was always clean, and her hair was always smelling pretty. She loved Brian. She trusted Brian. Then one day, when she woke up from napping on Brian’s chest with her arms still wrapped around him, not wanting to ever let him go, her dad, as she liked to call him at the time, seemed to be in pain, which caused her distress.
Now I won’t go into the finer details of where his pain was, other than it was in his groin region, but that day was the first day that he showed V how to make him feel better. It didn’t feel wrong for V to help her dad when he was in pain. It made her feel important, and after she took his pain away, he told her that the things daddies and daughters do were a secret. Something that can’t be done in front of other people and isn’t really spoken about. Kind of like going to the bathroom. V thought because it involved private parts, that this made sense. Let's remember, she was only ten years old and had no other role model to teach her what was wrong and right. So naturally, she believed everything Brian Bates told her.
Their interactions turned into games. Mostly, Brian liked to play the nurse game where it was V’s job to make him feel better, and eventually, Brian started showing V that he could make her feel better, too. V didn’t know it at the time, but when she was eleven, Brian Bates took her virginity.
V enjoyed her special times with Brian. He never hurt her. He always made her feel good, so when child services came to take her away from Brian when she was twelve, she was distraught. She’d been separated from the only person who had ever shown her love and care. She was confused and didn’t understand why the police and therapists kept telling her that Brian was a bad man for doing that to her. How could it have been bad when it felt so good?
Five years on, and V understands now that what happened when she went into Brian and Julie’s care was grooming. A case of good cop, bad cop. Julie kept her scared while Brian groomed her into his own plaything.
Brian Bates went to prison for what he did to V, but Julie Bates fled and has been a ghost ever since.
That is until V recently started receiving voice mails and text messages from Julie out of the blue. She started threatening V and demanded that she go and visit Brian in prison. If she didn’t go, Julie was going to make her pay somehow.
Hearing from Julie brought up V’s past traumas, and she was fearful of people finding out about her childhood. She explains her worries that the depravity of it will scare people away, which is why she went to the prison as Julie asked and saw the man that violated her as a child.
And guess what he did? He put his hand down his pants!
Brian Bates is a sick and twisted predator, and so is his wife, Julie Bates.
Together, they groomed V, and they filmed the molestation activities, selling copies on the black market. Julie has been trying to blackmail V with one such video, sending it to her school friends and challenging them to figure out who the little girl in the video was.
Well, Julie Bates, your time is up!
Here’s what we know about you!
