Page 83 of Like An Animal

Fine.

I’ll find out for myself.

The disc turns on to a view of what looks like a meeting room with a long wood table in the middle that leads to a small stage area. Around the table stands cloaked figures with plain white masks on their faces, but a man and a small child walks to the stage and once on the stage, I can see their faces.

It’s David and Bronwyn, but she couldn’t be older than five. Even that’s pushing it.

“Turn it off!” my wife demands as her knees buckle and she falls to the ground. Her face twists with agony, an emotional pain I’ve never seen her experience before. Not even the first night she came to my room and cried in my arms.

“I am Father David and I offer my sacrifice to The Order of The Fathers of Jephthah in the form of the newest Daughter of The Order, previously known as Bronwyn Durst, hereafter referred to as Mary Elizabeth, and every child of my bloodline from here until the end of days.”

What.

The.

Actual.

Fuck.

“Please, turn it off! I’ll tell you everything! Just, please, make it stop!” My gaze snaps to Bronwyn, covering her ears, tears streaming down her face. I drop down to her, pulling her into my chest.

She’s fucking broken from that short clip of whatever else is on there. I never wanted to make her cry like that. I just wanted the truth of what was going on.

“Do what she said. Turn it off.” The screen goes black as someone in a cloak walks over to the stage and extends his hand out to Bron.

She looked so much like Charlotte except she wasn’t smiling. She looked just as petrified as she did when she saw that design on the lid of the box.

The same design that was in the middle of the table, carved into the wood.

“Bron, are you okay?” Xavi asks, looking as horrified as I feel.

She doesn’t answer as she clings to me, sobbing into my shoulder in a way I’ve never seen anyone do.

No.

She’s not okay.

My wife is the furthest thing from it.

CHAPTER 34

THE GHOST

At some point while crying like a baby, Jeremy picks me up in his arms and carries me to our room, a place he knows I need to feel safe. I don’t know how he knows but he does.

He climbed into bed while still holding me and didn’t let me go. He held me like I was the most precious thing in the world to him.

“Shh. I’ve got you, little ghost,” he whispers as he pushes the damp hair out of my face. “I’m not going to let anyone hurt you ever again. You’re safe. There’s no safer place on Earth than right here with me.”

Another sob falls from my lips as he trails kisses across my forehead, pulling my body tight against his.

“It’s okay. Just tell me what happened,” he begs as more tears fall down my face.

“You know what my father did to me, but that wasn’t the end of it.” My voice breaks as I try to keep my speech together. “It was only the beginning.”

His fingers run through my hair as I press my cheek against his shoulder, staring off into space to try to disassociate from what I’m having to talk about.

“He used me as a bargaining chip when I was four. He took me to their compound to be initiated.”