Page 127 of Ripped Lace (Ripped Bratva)

I reach out to stroke the back of her hand. “I believed them, too,” I assure her. “You’re not alone. Keep going.”

“So we moved to the Sanctuary. It was good at first. We got clothes and food and a place to stay. And they taught us all kinds of stuff. How to think, how girls are supposed to act. It seemed nice. Weird, but nice. And I guess I was stupid enough to believe all that, too.”

Phoenix’s fist tightens on the edge of the table. I can see the anger coursing through him.

“Then, after a couple months, one of the important men came to our little house. Ra… Rag…”

“Raj,” I finish for her.

She nods. “Yeah, that’s it. Raj. He came and he told us that my sister had been selected for a special task. A job at the Garden, where she could serve the community. I didn’t want her to go, but he didn’t really give us the choice, you know?”

A tear glimmers at the corner of her eye and then falls to the tabletop. I feel nauseous and achy. Like my body is taking on Violet’s pain for her. Helping her shoulder the burden that’s crushing her.

“I shouldn’t have let her go,” she says, voice cracking. “I shoulda fought harder. But I… I trusted them, you know? He seemed so… certain. About his ‘mission,’ he called it. He said Caroline was a special girl and when I got old enough, I’d be special, too.”

“Then what happened?” I press.

“She disappeared. Six months passed and she was supposed to come home, but she never did. Mama didn’t care anymore. She just prayed with the women’s circles and did her chores and that was that. She’s had a hard life, so I don’t blame her for just wanting to feel safe somewhere. But I wasn’t feeling safe anymore. I was having nightmares, the kind that feel realer than life. I kept seeing my sister in some horrible place, screaming for me to come help her. So I went looking for Raj.”

She sobs, then straightens up and wipes her nose. “I told him I wanted to go where my sister had gone. To the Garden. And he smiled in this way that, like—I probably shoulda known it wasn’t a nice smile. But I just missed Caroline so much and those nightmares wouldn’t stop, so I had to go looking for her. And he told me he’d get me a job there. The next morning, I went. They wouldn’t even let me say bye to Mama. Just put me in the back of a truck and drove me from the Sanctuary to the Garden. And then… and then…”

That’s when she loses the thread of the story completely and dissolves into tears. I just stroke her back and murmur comforting words as best as I can. Even though I want to cry right along with her. I hurt with her, for her.

She deserves better.

We all do.

“She’s gone, isn’t she?” Violet whimpers.

“We can’t know anything for sure,” I tell her. “Don’t lose hope.”

“They said they were going to send me somewhere to take my pain away. The Wild Night Blossom. You said you knew what that was? Someone told me maybe Caroline went there.”

Staring at her face, I realize how young she is. I couldn’t tell at first past the bruises, but with her crying like this, I can tell. She’s a child. My heart cracks even further.

“Wild Night Blossom is a sex club,” I explain to her as gently as I can. “It’s not a good place.”

Her eyes bulge. She slumps back in her chair. She looks positively shattered. “So that means my sister…”

“I’m sorry, Violet,” I tell her. “I’m so sorry.”

A maid comes into the room and knocks politely. “The guest room is made up, sir,” she tells Phoenix.

He nods and turns to Violet. “Go sleep,” he orders, though his voice is more tender than usual. “Sleep as long as you need. You don’t have to decide anything right now. You’re safe here.”

Violet sniffles and nods. “Thank you,” she whispers.

“Marie will take you up to your room.”

Violet gives him another shy nod. Then she leaves with the maid.

The moment she’s gone, I stand up. “I should have told her,” I blurt. “I should have told her I was there once.”

“What purpose would it have served?” Phoenix sighs. “Knowing your past doesn’t change hers. She needs to trust us right now. And if you tell her, you’ll break it.”

He’s right. But the guilt lingers at the bottom of my stomach.

I shake my head. “I was complicit. I helped. I…”

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