Page 10 of Not Your Body

Jade swallowed, her eyes on the floor. Her fists clenched in her lap. “The doctor said they were… raped by three men.”

“The evidence suggests that, yes.”

“What’re you going to do to find them?” Jade’s throat worked and she raised her eyes. Shefeltthe rage radiating through her stare.

“You said your sister called you just before she and her friend headed home. They were afraid of the picketers.”

“Yes.”

“We’ll start there, with the picketers. Find out if any other students saw anyone approach Amy and Jasmine before they left campus.”

“You think some of the picketers did this?”

“Possibly. But if we have no eyewitnesses…”

“Then what? You just give up? Let them get away with it?”

“No. Absolutely not.” Sheriff Hunt looked at her with a penetrating gaze that reached to Jade’s core. “I won’t stop until they are brought to justice.”

Justice.What did that even mean? A fuckingrapistran the country. There was no fucking justice anymore.

“Is there anything else you can tell me,” the sheriff asked. “Anything at all. Even something that might not seem important.”

Jade held her stare as images from the videos surged through her head. The men’s faces were in those videos. Incriminating evidence that they had followed the girls and attacked them. Everything the sheriff needed to make the arrests. But Jade just stared at Sheriff Hunt… and shook her head.

“No,” she whispered. “There’s nothing else.”

BEFORE

The Women Scorned

“Jade?” Kim sat in the chair beside Jade, her hand resting comfortingly on the young woman’s back. “You don’t have to talk about it if you’re not ready.”

Jade pressed her face into her hands and took deep breaths to control the roiling emotions. She wanted to cry and scream and hit something.Not something… someone.And not justhit.

She raised her head as tears ran freely. This was a safe space; she didn’t need to hide her pain. Letting it out was a sign of strength.Here.But out there in the world, a crying woman equaled vulnerability and weakness. And men took advantage of that. The women in the group were all too aware of that.

Jade sniffed and wiped her eyes. Though younger than some of the women, the group often looked to Jade as theirleader.They were quick to hold her up in her distress as she held them up.

“I, um…” Jade cleared her throat and straightened in the chair. “I have to talk about it. Because if we don’t talk about it… they win. And they don’t get to win, not this time.”

Lisa tentatively spoke up. “All… all we’ve heard are rumors of what happened. What…” She swallowed, her eyes misting. “What really happened to Amy?”

Pain squeezed Jade’s heart as she gazed at the twenty-year-old. Lisa was gang-raped on prom night by her date and three of his friends. Two years later, nightmares continued to plague her sleep. The young men forged a story that implied Lisa willingly had sex with them, and that it was all consensual. Because the men came from upstanding families and Lisa did not—there were no consequences.

Most of the women in the group could tell similar stories. Some of them had never stepped forward to expose their abusers, fearing they would be shamed—rather than the men who hurt them. Their fears were valid. Society didn’t want to believe their handsome, upstanding men were monsters. It was easier to brand the women as “sluts” just asking for it,offeringit, and then cryingrape.Jade understood that some womendidthat.Somewomen. But most victims that came forward were trulyvictims.

Jade stood and absently rubbed her palms on her jeans. “Amy…” her voice rasped. “Amy and her friend, Jasmine, were… attacked and raped by three men.” She swallowed past a hard lump in her throat and her vision swam. “They were… brutally beaten. Amy… she…” Jade’s chin trembled. “She died from internal injuries. Jasmine is still… in a coma. They…” Jade took a slow, deep breath. “They… hung her. And wrote…MY Body, Slave…across her chest in black marker.” Jade hung her head, her chest heaving from surging breath. Her throat worked and jaw tightened.

Barb, an older woman in her early thirties, asked with a brittle tone, “Do you know who did it?” Barb came from an abusive marriage and bore the evidence in the form of scars. The most prominent—a gash on her cheekbone where her husband busted a beer bottle across her face. Married to a cop, Barb feared turning him in, certain the other cops would side with him. Barb had run from him, terrified he would kill her if she stayed. She fled to the opposite side of the country, changed her name, and started over. But her experiences left her jaded and distrustful of men.

“I do,” Jade replied thickly. “I knowexactlywho they are.” She told them about the videos on Amy’s phone, the protestors outside the college… and the three men who followed Amy and Jasmine into the park.

“I heard about the protestors,” Lisa whispered and hugged herself. “It scared me. Why are they allowed to do that… right out in public? Why didn’t someone stop them?”

“Because they’ve been givenpermission,” Barb snapped. “That fucker at the top is arapist.So now, thesemenfeel validated to treat women as they please. No one is going to stop them when theirhigh commanderapproves of their behavior.”

Lisa trembled and hugged herself. “What’re we going to do? What if they come after one of us next?”

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