REBECCA #3
"On you. On dozens of women just like you.
Someone very powerful is hunting those files.
We're trying to stop him." I take a slow breath.
"I don't care what happened between you two.
I don't care what personal secrets you're keeping.
But if you know anything that can help us...
" I hold her gaze, "it might save the next girl. "
The words hit their mark. Rachel's shoulders sag. She sinks into the chair. For a long time, she just stares at the floor. When she finally speaks, her voice is barely audible.
"Flea..." She swallows. "He belonged to the motorcycle club that took me."
I don't interrupt.
"After the Mexicans were..." she closes her eyes, "done with me..." her voice catches, "he transported me to the auction."
A tear slips down her cheek. "I hated him. I hated all of them. But..." She shakes her head. "We talked. I don't even remember how it started. He wasn't..." Another shake of her head. "He wasn't like the others."
I stay quiet.
"He barely spoke. But whenever he looked at me..." she searches for the words, "it felt like he still saw a person."
Not merchandise. I think. A person.
"I asked him about his ear." Her brow furrows at the memory.
"It was missing part of the lobe. I'd seen another woman with the exact same injury.
" She rubs at her forehead. "There was a woman who bought me and some others.
She was very beautiful and elegant. She was missing part of her ear too.
I remember asking him if they'd been in an accident.
" A sad smile touches her lips. "He just...
walked away." Silence settles between us.
"I never thought I'd ever see him again.
Months passed while I was with my master.
" She laughs derogatively, but I can see the pain in her eyes she's trying to hide.
"One night... the bedroom door opened. I thought master had come back.
" Her whole body shudders. "It wasn't him.
It was Flea. He didn't say a word." "He walked in... cut my restraints..."
I barely dare to breathe. I don't want to remind her of my presence, because she seems to be talking to herself now.
"He asked me one question." She smiles through fresh tears. "If you could choose... what would your name be?"
I frown. "'Choose?'"
Rachel nods. "I told him Rachel. I've been called so many names. I just wanted me back."
She wipes at her eyes. "He took me outside.
Master was on the ground, hacked to pieces.
Don't look, Flea said, but of course I did.
He took me to a house. I thought, here we go again, but he never touched me.
He fed me, told me where the bathroom was.
He said, Wait for me, and I did. When he came back, he had papers for me.
Rachel Whitacker. Birth certificate, driver's license," she lets out a sound that might be a cut-off laugh, "a fucking college degree.
A social security card. He also handed me ten grand in cash, to start a new life. "
Finally, she looks at me. "And just like that...the old me was gone."
I want to ask, what about me? I want to shout, did you ever think about calling me? I want to scream. Do you have any idea what I went through? But I take a deep breath and simply ask. "Did he tell you why?"
She meets my eyes. "You'll leave me alone after this?" Her voice trembles. "You'll never come back?"
The question punches a hole straight through my chest. This isn't how I'd imagined finding my sister. Not in a thousand different dreams. But I nod. "If that's what you want."
She closes her eyes. "My husband doesn't know.
" She takes a shaky breath. "He thinks I lost everything in a fire four years ago.
That I'm an orphan. So does my daughter.
" Another breath. "I want to keep it that way.
I'm sorry, Becca. I really am. But I can't..." Her voice breaks.
"I can't be that Rachel again. Rachel, whose father murdered her family.
The Rachel who was..." She can't finish.
But the words hang between us. Raped. Sold. Auctioned.
She shakes her head. "I can't."
I stare at her. I don't understand. Maybe I never will. To me... she's still my sister. Still the girl who crawled into my bed after nightmares. Still the kid who stole cookies before dinner and blamed Teddy. Still Rachel.
"I need you to pretend Rachel died in Mexico." The words hit harder than any punch ever could.
"Died?"
She nods. "Four years ago."
"No." I shake my head. "No." My voice cracks. "We made a promise."
She looks away.
I keep going. "After Dad..." I swallow around the lump in my throat. "We swore we'd never leave each other. No matter what. That we'd always stick together."
Her eyes fill with tears. "I remember. 'Til death do us part." She gives me the saddest smile I've ever seen. "Well..." a tear slides down her cheek. "It has."
Silence stretches between us. I search her face. "Do you ever think about me?"
Nothing.
"Do you ever wonder if I'm okay? Wonder where I am? Whether I'm alive?"
She slowly shakes her head. "No."
It's a lie. I see it the second it leaves her mouth. The way her eyes shine. The way her lips tremble. The way she can't quite look at me. She's thought about me. Probably every damn day. She just can't survive if she admits it. She gestures around us.
"Rachel doesn't have a family anymore."
Something inside me hardens. Maybe this is the goodbye I've been searching for all these years.
"Fine." I take a slow breath. "Have it your way."
I straighten. "Why did Flea free you?"
Rachel closes her eyes. A sad smile touches her lips. "He told me... I was only the first. He said thanks to me... he figured out the woman I'd asked about, the one missing part of her ear, was his mother."
I freeze, but she doesn't notice.
"He said everything finally made sense. He told me he was going to burn her world to the ground.
" Rachel wipes away another tear. "Then he made me promise.
Never look for him. Never contact him. And if anyone ever asked...
to say I'd never heard the name Flea." Pain twists across her face.
"I lasted four years." She lets out a hollow laugh.
"You're the first who asked, and I... I betrayed him. "
The pieces finally click into place. I understand. I don't like it. But I understand.
I stand. "Maybe this will help you sleep tonight."
Rachel looks up.
"Flea's dead." The words taste like ash. "He took his secrets to the grave. No one's coming for you." I hold her gaze. "Least of all me."
A sob escapes her.
"Unless..." I force the words out, "you decide you want a sister again."
Rachel breaks. "Thank you."
I meet her eyes for a second before I turn around. This time... I don't look back.