Apparently, the other inmates had shouted, “Child molesters deserve to die!” while they turned him into bloody pulp.
When we heard, Mom’s face broke into a rare, genuine smile.
My sisters finally exhaled, as if they’d been holding their breath for years.
Then they all looked at me, their eyes swimming with remorse.
Mom reached toward me but hesitated, her hand stopping mid–air.
Seeing her uncertainty, I grabbed her hand first.
“Mom, I get it. All of it. Thank you.”
She immediately dissolved into tears.
My older sisters joined in, both apologizing between sobs.
But I couldn’t blame them. Not anymore.
I already knew the whole truth.
Everything they did was to protect me.
I wasn’t the unwanted child I’d believed myself to be. I’d received the greatest love my mother and sisters could offer under impossible circumstances.
Against a predator as powerful and connected as Robert Mitchell, their cruel treatment and attempts to push me away were the only shields they had.
If they’d shown me even a hint of affection, Robert would have turned his monstrous attention on me too.
That was why they prevented me from going to the authorities. The house was crawling with his people; any attempt to report him would have ended with me–or anyone helping me–dead.
The night the neighbors called 911 was pure chance–a rare moment when Robert was away on business. If he’d been home, those good Samaritans wouldn’t have lived to regret it.
Thankfully, that police visit gave Kate the opening she needed to speak with my mother privately and set up the sting operation.
As for that infamous video–the one that made everyone who saw it want me dead–it contained footage of my two sisters being abused by Robert Mitchell.
My mother used it as a nuclear deterrent, knowing that anyone who witnessed those horrors would be too terrified
to cross him.
16:47
Chapter 10
Even Adam, my ex–boyfriend, had no real choice but to abandon me. Otherwise, he would have been eliminated. I don’t blame him; he’d already risked too much trying to help.
While helping Mom through her recovery, I discovered Robert Mitchell had killed many of his children.
My father was truly a monster in human skin.
Whenever my mother became pregnant, he would demand genetic testing for the fetus.
If tests showed a boy, he’d force her to abort. Only female fetuses were allowed to survive.
The last baby had been a girl.
This explained why Robert Mitchell’s attitude toward me did a complete 180 as soon as he found out Mom was pregnant.
Because he was a pedophile–he wanted to watch the child develop, step by step, only to victimize her later.
I’d already “aged out” of his… preferences.
Mom refused to bring another child into that hell, so she deliberately terminated the pregnancy.
Thank God that bastard’s dead now.
Mom and my two sisters are finally free from that nightmare.
From now on, the four of us will only move forward–toward everything better.
16:47
