24. Chapter 24
After everyone settles in, with me on Mary’s left and Alli on her right at the head of the bed, Thor clears his throat.
“Is it still okay if I stay for this, Mary?” he asks, and I say a silent thank you that he’s purposefully trying to not speak as loud as he normally does since I can still feel slight tremors in her hand.
Mary licks her lips nervously and nods. “Yes. Given that we’re going to be staying somewhere on the MC grounds, it’s only fair that you hear everything. Just… If you need to tell the others in the MC… Is it okay if you and Luke fill them in on what I said earlier this morning and what I’ll say in a bit? I can always clarify things or if you guys have more questions, but…” She pauses as she takes a deep breath. “Some of this I don’t think I’ll be able to repeat multiple times.”
I squeeze her hand and when I glance up at Thor, his eyes have softened, but I can also see the anger thrumming through him.
“Of course, Mary, and I understand. Also, I wanted to let you know that Levi and Mae would like to come and visit you whenever you feel up to that. No pressure or anything—it can happen after you’re released if you prefer.”
Mary hesitantly squeezes my hand and I turn toward her, nodding in agreement with Thor when I see the question in her eyes. They’ll be able to help her feel like she’s not an outcast or a burden.
She nods. “Okay.”
Relief fills me because I know they’ll be able to help her.
Someone clears their throat and we all turn toward Dixon.
“Like earlier this morning, everyone please try to stay quiet, and if you have questions or need clarification, please identify yourselves and then ask your question.” He pauses, and his gaze returns to Mary. “Are you ready?”
Mary takes a couple of deep breaths, and then nods. “I’m ready.”
Dixon nods in return and then fiddles with something on his phone.
““It’s 9:30 am on Friday, November 24 th , 2023. This is Officer Hughes taking the statement of Mary Hayes. Present are Captain Morgan, Officer Morgan, Haris Catarino, Luke Morgan also known as Patch, Allison Thatcher, and Ryan Gilbert, also known as Thor. Mary, thank you for your statement earlier today. This morning, you mentioned that you were kidnapped and that Stephan bought you. Can you tell us what happened the night you were kidnapped on April 11, 2014?”
Mary’s throat works as she swallows a couple of times.
“I’ll back up a little, because part of what happened earlier that day is relevant.” She takes a deep breath, but for this next part, her gaze snaps to mine and stays on me. “I hadn’t been feeling well for a few months prior to that day. After school, I was supposed to help Luke, Brady, and a few others with the sets for an upcoming play. However, I wasn’t feeling well, so I went home and stayed with my friend Alli since I didn’t want to be alone and Dad was going to be working for a few more hours. We studied together for an upcoming test. When it was time to head home for supper, she gave me a pregnancy test and listed off a bunch of symptoms that I hadn’t noticed. After supper, I took the test and found out I was pregnant.
“I went to lay down and that’s when I felt movement in my stomach. Freaked out, I called and made an appointment with a women’s clinic in the next town over, Ridgeview, for eight o’clock the next morning. My periods have always been, and still are, sporadic and light, I had no idea how far along I was. But if I was feeling movement, I knew I had to be pretty far along. I don’t know how I didn’t know I was pregnant, but looking back on my symptoms now, I could see where I should have connected the dots sooner but didn’t. Needing to tell Luke, I texted him and asked if he could call me once he got home. After gathering up the courage to tell my dad, I opened my bedroom door and that’s when I heard the sound of glass breaking downstairs.”
Her eyes turn misty and her grip on my hand tightens.
“Take your time, Mary,” Dixon gently tells her.
She nods, swallows thickly and tells us what happened next. About thinking Nikos had dropped a glass or something. That the rest of the house was pitch black with no sign of Nikos.
When she gets to the part where Diego tells her it’s time to fulfill her duty, blood rushes through my ears, almost drowning everything else out.
“Back up, please. Can you repeat what Nikos said to you?” Dixon asks her.
“H-He told me to run. That D-Diego wanted me, but he died before he could say more,” she stutters out and she pulls her hand away from mine for a moment to wipe away her tears. Both Alli and I place a hand on each of her thighs. She squeezes my hand again, resting her hand on mine, as she continues to sniffle. If her other arm wasn’t in a sling, I know she’d also be holding Alli’s hand.
“That’s when Diego spoke up from behind me. H-He told me that they killed him because Dad wouldn’t do what he was ordered to do.”
“Did either of them say who shot Nikos?”
Mary shakes her head as she blinks rapidly to keep more tears from falling from her misty eyes. “No, but they were the only two people in the house. I did notice that the coffee table was overturned and a couple of the chairs were pushed around, which would have taken effort even though we had hardwood floors. One of the windowpanes in the living room was broken. I’m not sure if it was from a stray bullet from Diego or Isaac or if there was someone outside shooting in.”
Uncle Sam clears his throat. “This is Captain Morgan. Based on the analysis of the scene that was done, they suspect that something hit the window from the inside.”
“Thank you, Captain. Mary, then what did Diego say?”
“That Dad was supposed to hand me over so that I could fulfill my duty as a Vasquez. That the Don ordered me to be married off since I had recently turned eighteen. Everything was already arranged and by midnight that night, I would be in the hands of my new owner. He even said me being pregnant wouldn’t break the deal. In fact, it made him more money. I have no idea how they knew I was pregnant, since I’d only just found out myself, but they did.”
She then goes on to explain that Diego ordered Isaac to capture her, the struggle her and Isaac had all throughout the downstairs, Isaac injuring her and then capturing her before restraining her, threatening her friends and their families, and finally, Diego injecting her with something that has her quickly passing out.
Fury runs in my veins at what they did to her. The fact that he not only threatened to kill Mary and my baby, but also to rape my sister and Alli before killing all of her friends and their families, damn near has me launching out of my chair.
Mary tells us about waking up in a room, which was practically a jail cell where she was held for a month. Her only contact was a doctor who didn’t even talk to her or respond to her begging for help. When she was moved upstairs, she was told that she was married to Stephan the day she was kidnapped even though it was all fake.
When she had Asher, she said that Stephan had told her she could name him whatever she wanted so long as it wasn’t a relative’s name and that the child had to have his last name. He was insistent that he wouldn’t allow her child to live under his roof or provide for him if she gave him any other last name than his.
My chest had warmed, Brady grinned, and Alli had cried when she said she gave the kids her best friends’ names as their middle names as a way to still have a part of them in her life. Asher Lucas, Isaiah Brayden, and Cassandra Allison. It stunned me, but more so Brady than me, that she gave Isaiah Brady’s name, even though she had serious doubts about Brady because of how he treated her after his parents’ accident.
She then goes into detail about how life had been for her ever since—the restrictions on what she could do or say, where she could go, what happened to her when she ‘disobeyed’ and then gradually, the punishments becoming more severe and more frequent. How for the past two years, she studied her surroundings, paid attention more, and found out more about what Stephan was doing for her grandfather and Diego.
“So, you overheard a number of phone calls between Stephan and Diego?” Dixon asks her and she nods.
“Yes. I think that as the years went on, Stephan believed he’d trained me enough and wouldn’t even think of going against him. Enough so, that he became more lax about things.”
“What kind of things?”
“When he would get a call from Diego, he stopped listening to it privately in his office and started putting the phone on speaker phone. Most of the time, he left the door ajar. That’s when I learned that whenever Diego spoke to Stephan that he’d say that ‘the Don’ wanted Stephan to do something. I don’t know if that’s really true or not, but that’s what Diego would say.” She pauses as she tilts her head slightly. “Actually, the more I think about it, the more I think Diego was giving those orders and using the Don as a scapegoat.”
“What makes you think what Diego said might not be true?”
Mary bites her lip and I feel a slight tremble run through her. “Out of all the family on my mother’s side, it was only my mother, grandmother, Diego, Carlos and his wife and son, Gianna and Isaac, that seemed to have an issue with Dad and me. All of the others never gave me reason to suspect them. And there was only once that they sided against me, which was when I was a kid. Or I should say, didn’t stand up for me.”
“What happened?”
“We had a family get together at my Aunt Anita’s house and there was a playset in the backyard. My cousins and I were all out there playing when one of the adults called out that it was time to eat. My two younger cousins raced inside and it was just Isaac and I that were climbing down off the playset to head inside. He pushed me off the ladder as I was climbing down, and I fell and broke my arm. He told everyone I was the one picking on him and bullying him. That I was the one that attacked him first and he pushed me off him and that’s when I fell. The only adult that saw what happened was Uncle Mateo, and even though he stood up for me and told everyone what really happened, Gianna and Carlos wouldn’t listen to him. They yelled at me for attacking their ‘precious, innocent, baby boy’. Then, they kicked Dad and me out, even though it wasn’t their house, and said that we could come back to pick up my mother later before slamming the door in our faces. That was the year before we moved to Wisconsin.
“Even though I never liked Isaac, I’d never hurt him. It’s not who I am. I also know Carlos knew Isaac was in the wrong, because as Dad and I walked to the car, we passed by an open window. I could see Carlos and Diego lecturing Isaac that if he was going to pull a stunt like that, to make sure there were no witnesses around to rat him out. Then they both gave him pointers on what he should have done instead. I could tell Dad wanted to go back inside to set things right, but instead, he turned and ushered me to the car to take me to the ER.”
Dixon frowns as he jots something down.
Three hours later, Mary’s body sags slightly into the bed and Dixon turns off the recording.
Bringing her hand up to my lips, I press a kiss on the back of her hand. “You did good, Siren. I’m proud of you.”
And I am.
However, I thought that she would have freaked out more about having to relive the past nine years. Don’t get me wrong—I felt her body trembling a number of times, but it wasn’t as bad as it was earlier this morning when she gave her first statement. I don’t know if my earlier words helped relieve some of her worries and that she’s not alone in this or if there was another reason she didn’t freak out as much.
“Mary, can I take a picture of the scar you incurred from when Isaac injured you before you were kidnapped so that we can put it with your file?”
A determined look comes over Mary’s face and she releases my hand to raise the bed slightly. Once she’s steady, she lowers the bed, but stays sitting up.
“Alli, can you help? The scars are on my right shoulder and with this sling, I don’t know if it’s covering it up.”
Knowing both the sling and the gown are going to be in the way, I stand up, sweep Mary’s hair over to her left side, and undo the gown ties at the base of her neck. “Mary, we’ve got to move the gown slightly. Place a hand to your chest to keep it in place.”
Crimson snakes up the back of her neck, but she does as I ask. Alli unhooks the strap of her sling and steps back to allow Dixon to step forward. Moving Mary’s gown out of the way, my anger once again surges at seeing the jagged three-inch-long scar on her shoulder. I can also see a couple of other smaller scars near the larger one, most likely from the same sconce that Uncle Sam had found broken, and I find myself praying that none of the wounds were deep.
Dixon takes a couple of pictures and I right Mary’s gown while Alli helps with the sling.
Right as I sit back down, my phone vibrates in my pocket and I fish it out, instantly pissed when I read the text.
“W-What is it? What’s wrong?” Mary’s voice is shaky and scared, and I instantly curse myself. She’s probably thinking it’s about the kids.
Instead of answering her right away, I turn toward Uncle Sam. “Smoke just texted me that he saw Stephan entering the hospital.”
Refocusing back on Mary, I notice that her face has paled, but then a determined look comes over her face. Glancing at the time, I realize it’s almost 12:30pm.
“My guess is that Stephan went home and found us and all of our things gone. I wouldn’t be surprised if he trashed something or a room. What’s going to happen when he gets up here?”
Those were my same thoughts, but before I can say anything, Uncle Sam beats me to it.
“We’ve got enough evidence to arrest him for what he’s done to you. I want you to stay in here when he comes up here. Same for you, Alli. Text your boss that you’re going to be a little late while we handle this situation. I know you could just slip out right now, but I’d rather you stay where I know you’re safe. I don’t want you getting caught in the crossfire, so to speak. We’ll handle Stephan and get him booked. But we need you both to stay safe during all this. Okay?”
Alli nods and muscles tick in Mary’s jaw as her eyes blaze.
“I mean it, Mary. Don’t forget that I know you,” Uncle Sam teases and just like that, some of the tension running through her releases as she huffs but nods her head.
“I’ll stay in here even though I’d like to give him a few choice words. I know he’s going to make himself out to be the victim. He might even spew some of that shit that Claudia said earlier. Anything to keep him looking like the dutiful husband and not put a stain on his precious reputation.”
Brady chuckles and grins. “Well, then it’s a damn good thing we all, with the exception of Thor and Dixon, know you in and out. He isn’t going to pull a fast one over on us.”
Mary frowns. “But that doesn’t take into account the dirty cops or the ones that Stephan’s trying to pressure into working for Diego. That reminds me, do you have a roster list, Sam?”
“As a matter of fact, I do. Luke told me what you had said the other day.” He reaches into his pocket right as there’s a commotion outside the room. Uncle Sam hands her the list and a pen before turning to Brady, Dixon, and Thor. Then he turns toward Harris and me. “You two stay in here with the ladies. Haris, you know what to do. The rest of you, follow me.”