23. TRUST
TWENTY-THREE
trust
Enzo
We sat at the dining table for hours, talking and plotting. Everyone went into operation mode. It seemed easier than dealing with the reality of what was shared.
Jared Whiteman had kids.
Not just kids—daughters.
The most notorious child predator and sex trafficker in US history, known for abusing young girls, providing children to his rich and powerful friends, had daughters.
Three daughters no one knew existed. I can’t wrap my head around it, let alone everything these three women have been through—what every victim who went to Maribel Island endured.
When we wrapped our conversation, I asked Pippa if she’d stay to talk with Hudson and me. We said our goodnight to Jules and Luna while Eva retreated to her room.
The hug exchanged between my sister and Luna lingered in a way that reminded me I need to ask her what is going on with the two of them.
In the chaos of the past couple of weeks, we haven’t discussed her long-harbored crush or what it’s been like working alongside Luna.
Let alone my hunch that maybe something has developed between the two of them.
Now Hudson, Pippa, and I stand in the den. I’ve noticed none of us have been drinking tonight, but I offer to pour them a glass of bourbon. Both decline.
Can I have this conversation without liquid courage? I guess I’m about to find out.
We’ve taken seats in three different chairs, all facing each other. Pippa is dressed in sweats with no makeup, her hair in a ponytail. When I saw her descend the stairs for dinner, it caught me off guard. I’ve never seen her so exposed, so vulnerable.
Before tonight, I’m not sure I ever saw the real her.
“Pippa, how are you? Really?” I ask.
She doesn’t look at us when she answers softly, “I’m not sure, to be honest.”
Hudson and I tell her it’s understandable to feel that way.
“I want to apologize,” I say.
Her deep-green eyes look at me in surprise. I’m not sure we’ve made any sort of deep, meaningful eye contact tonight until this moment.
I catch my breath, then say, “I overreacted to everything with Hudson and Eva.”
She shakes her head. “No, you didn’t. You had every right to be upset.”
“Maybe, but none of it was your fault.”
She scoffs. “I think it was all my fault.”
Hudson asks, “How?”
“What do you mean? The three of you wouldn’t be involved in any of this if it wasn’t for me.”
“I’m pretty sure we forced our way in,” I say gently. Pippa pauses, then gives me a small smile before she agrees. That smile lights me from the inside.
“Yeah, I mean, you did warn us,” Hudson says, now smiling, too.
She laughs cautiously. “I really did.”
After a beat, I say, “I have another question about last night.”
This causes her to tense a little, but she waits for me to continue.
“You don’t have to share anything you don’t want to, but before we learned the truth tonight, when you were talking in the van about Maribel and Troy, Hudson and I jumped to a different conclusion. We thought maybe you were a victim of Troy’s.”
“You were really upset last night,” Hudson adds, “and we don’t want to force you to share anything, but…did anything happen to you or your sisters on that island?”
She swallows. “Yes.” Her voice is low, quiet, raspy. My heart fractures apart. I see Hudson’s eyes close. “To me. Not to Jules or Luna. Sophie made Jules help with…recruiting girls. And that traumatized her in other ways, but I was the only one who…” she trails off.
I tilt my head in understanding.
Hudson joins her on her chair. He picks her up and sets her on his lap.
Pippa lets him. This impossibly strong, formidable woman lets herself be held.
He wraps his arms around her middle, and she leans her head on his shoulder. They look gorgeous together. Truly stunning. “I’m so sorry, baby,” Hudson says into her hair.
I sit, taking them in for a few minutes. Then I say, “It was Troy, then.” Not a question, a statement.
She looks at me and, in that look, I know.
Magnus Troy needs to fucking die.
I already knew he was a predator. A fucking horrible president.
An evil billionaire. But Pippa was right to call us out the very first night at the warehouse.
We haven’t done nearly enough. Fuck, we haven’t done anything at all.
All these predators walk the streets of my city, and I’ve sat back and let it happen.
No more.
“I know he and Jared were best friends, but how could Jared pawn off his own daughter?” I ask.
“It wasn’t him; it was Sophie.”
“The fuck?” Hudson curses.
She sits straighter in Hudson’s lap. “I’m going to tell you everything. I don’t want to, but I need to. I’m tired of secrets. I’m exhausted by all of it. I’ll tell you everything and then it’s up to you what you want to do.”
I rise to join them. I lower myself to the floor in front of Pippa and take her hands in mine. The three of us connected. I know whatever she’s about to say is going to be hard to hear, but I need her to know she’s not alone.
A small tear leaves her eye and I wipe it away. She inhales a sharp breath, closing her eyes, and whispers a quiet thank you.
“Sophie hated that we existed. What Jules said is true—we don’t know anything about our mothers except that Sophie hated them and us.
She made sure we knew it every single day.
I never understood Jared’s relationship with her.
He always referred to her as his girlfriend and they said they loved each other, but Jared…
he was still always with girls. It wasn’t a secret.
Sophie would bring him girls. It was…so fucked up.
Everything that happened was so, truly fucked up. ”
She takes a deep breath. “Sophie was cruel to us, and she and Jared were a package deal. When I was about fifteen, I started asking questions. I was angry all the time. I’d try to push their buttons because I wanted off the island.
I wanted to attend their dumb parties, but we were never allowed to attend.
I wanted to talk to literally anyone other than them, my sisters, and the Volkovs. I was going stir-crazy.”
Hudson rubs her arms slowly. I caress her hands. We are hanging on every word.
“Jared would come and go from the island. I mean everyone did, except the three of us. One night, he was away and Sophie said she wanted to talk to me. She was so nice that night.” Pippa laughs.
“That should have been my first clue, but she played the friend, you know? Like she understood why I had been rebelling and she pretended to agree with me; I was ‘becoming a woman,’ she said. I needed ‘to meet more people.’ She told me one of dad’s friends was coming over later in the week.
She asked if I’d like to join them for dinner.
I was so excited, I accepted right away. I was so stupid.
“The next night, she asked if I wanted to dye my hair. She acted like we were two teenage friends pulling one over on my dad. I loved the idea. I’d hated my red hair—it made me feel so different and she knew it.
So, we bleached it blonde.” She chuckles.
“Dad was so mad when he got back, but by then, it was too late.”
I feel my blood pressure rising. I’m working hard not to react, not to say anything. I can tell Hudson is restraining himself, too. I feel irrationally angry that someone else killed Jared before I had the chance. I want to tear the world down—hurt everyone who ever hurt her.
“I remember getting all dressed up, feeling beautiful. Jules begged me not to go. I told her she was just jealous. She’s always been the leader of our group, even though I’m older.
I should have listened to her, but I didn’t want to hear it.
I was expecting someone fun at dinner, someone close to my age, or maybe another girl, one in college.
I remember thinking it was definitely going to be a girl, since so many were always coming and going from Maribel. ”
Her eyes flick between ours. “It didn’t even occur to me…
You have to understand, this was about two years before Jared was arrested.
At this point, we didn’t know what the parties were.
We just knew there were these fun-looking parties every few weeks and that we weren’t allowed to go.
There were so many people we weren’t allowed to talk to, and my sisters and I wanted desperately to talk to more people.
When I got to the dining room, I was shocked.
“I knew who Magnus Troy was. I’d seen him on the island many times before.
Jared and Sophie talked about him often.
There were pictures of them together in the house, but I wasn’t expecting to see him there that night.
I knew right away Sophie had done this on purpose.
I almost ran away. I wish I would have.”
I squeeze her hands tighter. “I’m so sorry, Pippa.”
“It happened a few times after that. She wouldn’t let me dye my hair back because he preferred blondes. She told me I had to keep seeing him or she’d make Jules go instead.”
“Fucking bitch,” Hudson curses under his breath.
“I got pregnant,” she blurts suddenly.
Hudson and I try not to overreact, but it’s hard. I swallow, eyes wide, unsure what to say to such abuse and trauma.
“I just need to tell all of it, okay?” A tear slowly slides down her cheek.
Hudson wipes it away this time. We wait silently for her to continue.
“My sisters and I had never even been to a doctor. I barely understood periods, only that women got them. We had some homeschooling from Mrs. Volkov—” Pippa looks at me, eyes wide, realizing what she said.
I stiffen a bit.
“She was really lovely, Enzo. We were children and she was the only kind adult in our lives, like a mom to us three. She died when Junior was, like, ten. I think I was eleven or twelve. It was devastating.”
I close my eyes. “Jesus. Didn’t Konstantin have her killed?”
“We didn’t know that at the time, but yes, that’s the assumption. I’m not surprised—he was the worst. I’m glad he’s dead,” she admits.
I offer a small smile.