Maddie nodded her head. “Yes. Of the deepest kind.” I had to roll my lips together to stop them from trembling. My little Maddie. My timid and scared Maddie had gained what in our previous life in the commune I feared she would never be able to have—true love. Someone to care for her like she deserved. Someone to break the evil that was thrust upon her by Brother Moses.
I looked at Mae and Lilah. Lilah too wore a ring, as did Mae. “You are both married too?” Lilah nodded her head, but Mae shook hers.
Mae smoothed her hands over her long, flowing black dress, and her lips began to form into a happy smile. She cradled her stomach protectively. “Bella, I am with child.”
“Mae,” I whispered, pure astonishment causing my words to catch in my throat. But then a deep panic set within me. She was not married like my sisters, yet she was with child. Had someone hurt her . . . had they touched her against her will . . . had they . . . ?
Mae placed a reassuring arm over my shoulder. “I am in love, Bella. We are engaged. We just have yet to get married. But I love him with all my heart regardless. We are already married in every way that counts to me.”
I recalled the men my sisters had stood beside. “The one with dark hair. The leader who did not speak,” I said. Mae nodded.
“Styx,” she informed me. “His name is Styx . . . or River to me.”
My gaze traveled over my sisters, and a calmness settled in my heart. Lilah brushed away my hair. I looked at her face. The scar on her cheek was prominent, and she was clearly in pain. But she was happy too. I could see it in her expression.
Peace. They had all found peace.
“You are all happy,” I said. I was still for several seconds. A sob burst from my throat.
“Bella,” Maddie cried out, but I stepped back and held out my hand to stop her approach. I did not recognize the feeling that had taken root in my stomach. On the one hand, I was delirious with happiness that my sisters, the only family I had ever known, were alive . . . and they were safe. All I had ever wanted for them was happiness. For them to be free. It was why I had told Mae to run. I wanted her to take Lilah and Maddie too and free them from their abusive cages.
And she actually had. It had clearly not been easy, but Mae had done for my sisters what I never could. She had saved them.
They were alive. They were at peace.
They were saved.
Rider’s face came to my mind. I could not get rid of the image of the pain in his eyes as he confessed to hurting my sisters. The blond man’s words came crashing back to me . . . Ask your fucked-up cunt of a man about how he kidnapped Mae and tried to force her to marry him. Ask him about how he captured Li and allowed her to be burned and gang raped by his prick of a twin and his pencil-dicked friends. Ask him about his fuckin’ insane obsession with Mae, only to fuckin’ turn up with you, her fuckin’ mirror image . . .
“The blond man,” I said to Lilah.
“He is my husband. His name is Ky,” she said. Hearing that made everything worse. Because if that was true, he loved Lilah with all that he was. He would not lie about what had happened to her. Deep down I knew it was true. I had heard the pain in his voice.
“He really did all of that?” I asked, almost inaudibly. My voice could not muster any strength. “Rider. Cain. He hurt you all like that?” My sisters looked at one another in concern. “Tell me!” I shouted, piercing the silence of the night.
Maddie jumped. Sympathy flooded Lilah and Mae’s faces. I shook my head, unable to believe it. That Rider could have done all of this . . . to my sisters . . . the only people I had ever loved in this godforsaken life.
“Let us go to my home,” Mae said. I followed as she took us to a vehicle. Ash, Maddie’s husband’s brother, drove us there. But I did not remember much of the journey. A strange numbness had taken me captive and I did not even try to escape.
When the vehicle stopped. I looked up to see a wooden house at the end of a small path. It was beautiful. Mae guided me out of the vehicle. “This is my house. I share it with Styx.”
I nodded silently and let her, Lilah and Maddie escort me through the front door and into a kitchen. It was unlike the basic kitchens I was familiar with in the commune. It was a mixture of silver metal and wood, the silver devices so shiny I could see my reflection in their buffed surfaces. The countertops were black, speckled with silver glass. Beyond the kitchen area, soft carpets in rich, warm colors lay on polished wooden floors. Large windows were elegantly dressed with beautiful floral curtains. The house smelled of freshly baked bread and a hint of a spiced, musky scent.
Mae moved to the stove to boil some water. Maddie helped Lilah to a chair at a large table. I stayed in the doorway, watching as they moved around the opulent room with ease and familiarity.
I had never felt more alone.
My sisters had survived, they had found new lives . . . and they had found a place in the world without me. This strange new world where I did not recognize the smells and sounds. A world that I feared; a world where I knew I did not belong.
“Rider,” I whispered and felt each of my sisters freeze. I did not see them though; my eyes had focused on a knot of wood on the floor and my sight had blurred. “He is a good man,” I stated. “He is a kind man. I know he is.”
“Bella,” Mae said cautiously, after many seconds. “Come here.” I blinked away the blur from my eyes and saw her gesture to a spare chair around her table.
My stomach lurched.
I did not know what to do here in this place. I did not know how to act around my sisters after so long apart. The feeling almost destroyed me as much as any schooling from Brother Gabriel had ever done. Because these women were my lifeline, they were my safety. They were all I ever used to think about when I feared I could not cope. I had lived for them.
But now I was confused. My head was a thick fog. And I . . . I . . .