Page 90 of Ripped Lace (Ripped Bratva)

She shakes her head without looking at me.

“What about Josiah?” I ask. “What do you know about him?”

“Other than he would have been a wonderful husband?” Mama says bitingly. “Nothing you don’t already know.”

I narrow my eyes at her, sick of watching her victimize herself while she refused to acknowledge what he did to me.

“Josiah is a rapist, Mama,” I say strongly. “Is that who you wanted me married to?”

“And what are you married to now?” Mama counters. “A beast of a man who abducts people from their homes and locks them away like rats.”

“Is that any different from what you’ve been involved in?” I say.

Her cheek twitches. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“There’s proof that Josiah has been working with Astra Tyrannis for decades now,” I tell them. “And Astra Tyrannis is a notorious organization that makes their money on human trafficking.”

Mama’s eyes go wide—but Papa looks unsurprised.

“I’ll ask again: Did you know?” I ask, focusing my attention on him.

He sighs. “I wasn’t lying before. I’ve never heard that name. But…” He stops short.

“Tell me, Papa.”

“I knew that Josiah was tied to some powerful men,” he admits at last. “How else could he so often bail our little project out of debt and ruin time and time again? He was connected, well-connected. That much I was aware of.”

“But you didn’t ask questions.”

“I couldn’t,” Papa replied. “Josiah looked after us.”

“By selling women and children into modern-day slavery!”

“That’s not true,” Mama says desperately, looking between me and Papa. “It can’t be true. Solomon?”

“I don’t know what’s true and what’s not anymore,” he replies weakly.

I want to sit down, but I don’t want to get anywhere near my parents.

“They’ve taken my son,” I say into the silence. “Astra Tyrannis attacked earlier and took Theo.”

Mama looks at me with wide eyes. “That was the sound we heard?”

“Yes.” I can barely look at her. “They have my baby.”

“Your husband didn’t protect him?” Mama snaps.

I hold my anger at bay. “Papa, you may not have asked questions, but you knew something was happening. You knew Josiah was involved in something.”

“Yes.”

“Do you know anything that might help me locate my son?”

“No.” His answer is immediate, and it makes my blood boil.

“You won’t even try—”

“I don’t know anything about this business,” Papa says, cutting me off. “… But Raj might.”

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