Chapter Eighteen
“Mmmm,” I groan, waking from what feels like a two-second nap.
“I know, baby. It’s mean, and you deserve rest, but they are close,” Reid says, peppering my face with kisses.
“I’ll never forgive you,” I whine and let him sit me up.
“You’re so dramatic,” Giovanni laughs, grabbing my hands and pulling me up from the ground. I stumble a bit, and he laughs as he hugs me. “I’ve missed you, Bunny.”
“I’ve missed you, too, asshole,” I mutter as I snuggle against him.
“I think it shows just how much you care about each other that you can pick up six years later like no time has passed,” Reid says.
“I was stalking him online,” I say.
“So was I,” Giovanni laughs. “I might have also had friends where she went to school, so I was always checking in on her. I lost track of her after she graduated. Now I know why.”
“They knew I was raped by Professor Chavez, but he was tenured, so no one really gave a shit outside of students. My roommate never told anyone I tried to kill myself.”
“They’re here,” Thane says. I turn around, and I see a woman who undeniably looks like an older version of me rushing up to the house with a man following behind her with a smirk on his face. Reid opens the door, and the woman stops in the doorway as tears start running down her cheeks.
“Hey, I am Jerry Reynolds, Allison’s husband,” Jerry says, shaking Reid’s hand.
“I am Reid Holmes. This is Thane Meridian and Giovanni Davis,” Reid introduces. “And this is obviously Ayla.”
“It’s so good to meet you, Ayla,” Jerry says with a smile. He steps my mother into the house before shutting the door. She is frozen in place, and I can tell she wants to hug me, but she’s afraid.
“You can hug me… You look like you might explode if you don’t,” I say, and she practically throws herself at me.
I don’t expect the gut punch of emotions to hit me when her hug feels like everything I needed as a child.
I don’t expect to suddenly feel deprived of the one thing that could have saved me from him.
My entire childhood flashes through my mind as violent memories that I try to always keep buried.
Every smack, kick, punch, and unwanted touch suddenly feels like it’s crushing me.
“I’ve got her,” Mom says, letting me bring myself down to the ground. We sit, and she holds me tightly as she rocks us. “I’m so sorry I couldn’t find you, Ayla. I tried. I never gave up.”
“She had a pretty horrific childhood," Giovanni says. “I’ve known her since she was four and I was five. She always had bruises on her, and he somehow always had money, despite never having a job. We kept her across the road literally as much as we possibly could because it seemed to be the only time she got attention that wasn’t him screaming at her. We could hear him inside the house sometimes. When Mom and Dad would call the police, they’d never check on her, just talk to him outside, and it would go quiet for the night. ”
“Do you want me to explain, sweetheart, or do you want to?” Reid asks me.
“You,” I say through broken tears as Mom holds me.
“Lenord started raping her when she was thirteen. She said he’d get drunk and call her Ally when he assaulted her.
It was happening almost daily until she went to college and was able to cut most of her contact.
Usually he’d keep in contact with her, so she thought something had happened to him when he didn’t reach out.
She went to check on him, and he raped her again.
This time, he actually made eye contact and called her the right name.
He was, uh.. Still inside… he had a heart attack and died…
Three months later, she graduated with her master’s degree.
She was getting a letter of recommendation from her professor, and he raped her in his office.
She had a mental breakdown and tried to kill herself.
She spent a year in an inpatient psychiatric hospital before going to Meridian Institute.
She graduated from that a few days ago. We all came to help her clean this place out as it’s getting sold tomorrow,” Reid explains.
“Meridian. That’s why your name sounds familiar,” Jerry says. “A friend of mine told me his daughter went through there after being raped when she was struggling to cope, and it helped her significantly.”
“What’s her name?” Thane asks.
“Megan Pressley,” he says. “This was last year.”
“Yes. Megan. She is a brilliant woman,” Thane says.
I sit back and wipe my face. “Sorry,” I mutter.
“There is nothing to apologize for, honey,” Mom says.
“He was a horrible man. I begged the court not to give him visitation rights, but they didn’t listen to me.
He was only supposed to have you one night a week, but then refused to give you back.
I did everything to try to find out where he lived, but I couldn’t.
Two weeks passed before they finally sent a cop over there.
Come to find out, he had been gone since the day he picked you up.
They didn’t issue any alerts, and it was just a few articles that mentioned it.
Jerry and I were the only ones until I started sharing the story online. ”
“When he was sober, he’d beat the shit out of me. When he was drunk, it was like I didn’t exist and I was you.”
“I met him online when I was a teenager. He made me believe that he loved me, so I met up with him. I made it clear that I didn’t want to have sex, but he held me down anyway,” she explains.
“He raped me in the back seat of my own car. When I turned up pregnant, I wanted an abortion, but he and my parents got the court to block me from doing it. I turned eighteen, got my own place and a job, and I was doing well for myself. The court said I wasn’t responsible enough and that you needed a more stable parental figure, so they required that I allow him to have you for one night a week.
When you went missing, my parents tried to say it was for the best, so I’ve not spoken to them since. ”
“It sounds like he paid someone off,” Giovanni says.
“Between his life insurance and what he had in his account, I ended up with two point one million dollars,” I say. “He was definitely paying someone off.”
I’m curious if there is a connection between Joe and Dad, because how else did he have all that money?
For those men to show up right after I get out and get a hold of the money is suspicious.
I don’t want to say anything and make things worse, so it’s best I keep this theory to myself.
Plus, what is the likelihood that it is connected?
I take some time to walk Mom around the house and tell each other about ourselves.
The others give us space, and I know Mom appreciates that just as much as I do.
Turns out, she is a victim advocate and works with kids who were assaulted.
She joins them in court, talks to them in the middle of the night when they can’t sleep, and goes to them when they struggle.
She doesn’t have any kids right now, but it seems like it’s rare for her to have downtime.
When we get back to the living room, everyone looks at us. “Ready to go to the house?” Thane asks me.
“Yeah,” I say. “Jerry, I’m sorry I haven’t said much to you. I just want you to know that I am acknowledging that you are like my dad. I don’t want you to think I…”
“Ayla, I would never…”
“What?” I ask, interrupting him. “No. I’m saying that I understand that you are my dad… Because you are… Right, Allison? Mom… Whatever.”
“I mean… Yeah,” she says. “And you can call me whatever you want, Ayla.”
“Mom it is, then. And Dad,” I say. Jerry looks like he is about to cry, and I sigh.
“How old was I when you two met?” I ask.
“You had been gone about a month. I was a cop who responded when she was screaming at a lady at the receptionist desk for not letting her talk to a detective,” he says.
“Right, so you would have been the one to raise me, not Lenord. You're my dad. You earned the right to be called Dad when you stood by her side and never gave up on trying to find me. You loved a child you didn’t know, but now you do. This is our chance at making up for all of that lost time. So… Dad… I’m sorry I haven’t said much to you.
I am overwhelmed, and you are a tall man who kinda freaks out my PTSD.
I want to hug you because you are the least scary person in this room, but you are still a man… so… Dude, give me a hug,” I say.
“You ramble like your mother,” he says, wrapping me in a tight hug. The panic damn near crushes me, and I try to pull away.
“No. Just hold her,” Thane says. “Just give her a second. She’s okay.”
“You’re safe. I’ve got you, Ayla,” Jerry murmurs, kissing the top of my head. When I am calmer, he lets me pull back. “Don’t even say it. Thank you for trusting me.”
“Say what?” I ask.
“You were about to apologize. You had that same look that your momma does when she thinks she’s done something wrong,” he says.
“Y’all ready to go?” I ask with a smile, and the others chuckle.
The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, apparently, even when it’s stolen out of the orchard.