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“She protected you both?”
“Yes. For the only time in her life.”
“When you were older and living in New Mexico, did your father and Ender abuse you and Rochelle?”
Now Francine looked up. “In some ways it was worse.”
“I don’t understand.”
“You ever readOliver Twist?”
“I’ve heard of it of course, but I never read it.”
“It’s about a gang of street criminals, mostly kids. Oliver Twist becomes one. The leader of the pack is Jack Dawkins, nicknamed the Artful Dodger. He was trained by an old guy named Fagin.”
“I’m not following.”
“My father and Enders went into business selling product—andRochelle and I were the product. They pimped us out to anybody with money. And for the rich assholes, they secretly filmed the stuff. And then they blackmailed the shit out of them. And the rich assholes all paid. Because we were way, way underage. And we were expected to steal whatever we could from the men while we were with them. If we came home empty-handed, we got beaten.”
“Holy shit!”
“I slept with my first man at age thirteen. They even tried to pimp Dougie out, but he was too big and strong by then. He wouldn’t do it.”
“Then why didn’t he stop them?”
“You never knew my father. It wasn’t a matter of muscle. It was a matter of mind games. Of intimidation. Of putting you in mortal fear of your life. And no one was better at that than our old man. He ripped off the mob. Teenagers were not a challenge. My brother knew if he tried to stand up to him, Dad would’ve killed me and Rochelle without a second thought.”
“And where was your mother in all of this?”
“Drunk and stoned. I think she had given up by then.”
“I heard about what he did to knock you out of being in the school play.”
She slid back her shirtsleeve to reveal a long scar. “That was in addition to him screwing me out of starring inTwelfth Night. And the cat I brought home that pissed him off? He burned it alive, right in front of me.”
“Oh my God.”
“God never came around to my house while all that was happening.”
Gibson watched as two large tears fell onto Francine’s cheeks. She pulled the van over and gripped Francine’s hand. “I’m so sorry you had to deal with all that…horror.”
“It made me stronger in some ways. And totally blew me up in others. And you see the result.”
“And Rochelle’s mother?”
“She finally just bugged out, leaving Rochelle to fend for herself. FYI, I hate my mother. And I pity my mother. And I guess as the years went by the pity became stronger than the hate.”
“So you took care of her?”
“There were no happy times with my father. Therewerehappy times with my mother. If he hadn’t been in the picture, things would have been far different. For all of us. Yes, she had her issues, the booze, and the drugs, but they were almost all because of him. So when I was old enough and had enough money, I found her and put her in assisted living.”
“Couldn’t you have gone to the US Marshals Service? They could have made all this stop, surely.”
Francine glared at her. “Are you joking? The local marshals wereinon it.”
“What!”
“My dad offered me up to them. That way he got special privileges. They let him and Enders do whatever they wanted.”
