by Mia Sheridan
“The ones who infringe on a guild member’s business, yes. Farrow has grown some over the years, but the power structure remains the same. Membership in the guild is handed down through the generations, and those members run the businesses, hold places on the town council, and have their hands in every local election. Nothing happens in Farrow unless the guild says it does.”
“So that’s their purpose? To retain control of Farrow? It’s all about money and power?”
“Isn’t it always?”
She expelled a breath. “I . . . yes, I suppose it is.”
“The same group of families—ten remaining out of the original thirteen—has retained the wealth and control in that town for generations. It’s why it’s in their best interest to keep each other’s secrets, and the secrets of the members before them.”
“There’s a religious component too though, fraudulent as it might be.”
He nodded, considering all he knew, some he’d experienced, and others he’d ascertained. “The Guild hides behind religion, it always has, generation after generation in one form or another. In actuality, God has nothing to do with their practices, though they’ve convinced themselves He does. It took me some time to realize that.” He sighed, remembering when he’d first come upon that trunk hidden behind a portion of wall in the basement. The stories, the personal accounts from Taluta and Narcisa had helped him understand the true nature of evil. He’d had moments of deep discomfort regarding the things he’d been taught at Lilith House, but the indigenous women’s accounts had clarified for him right from wrong, helped him assess the kind of god he wanted to believe in versus the one being presented to him every day in the form of shame and mercilessness. Manipulation and religious artifice. Those writings had taught him to think critically.
In essence, and he didn’t think he thought this lightly, they had saved his soul.
“They use religion, but they believe in it too. Because of how Farrow operates, because of how it always has, in many ways it’s stayed stuck in the past. You might have felt that.” He only knew because, for a time, he’d gotten away. He’d had a firsthand view into the outside world. For the first time in his life, he’d been able to compare the way other people lived. Georgia and Mason had never experienced that. Sometimes he wondered if it was what made him different, made him question things that they didn’t. He’d suggested they all move away, leave Farrow behind forever and start lives somewhere else together. But they’d been resistant. They wanted revenge. And he’d told himself he did too, convinced himself of it. It had only taken one day in Scarlett’s presence for that “need” to begin to wither and crumble as new dreams, new desires, ones he’d never dared imagine, began to unfurl inside him like the budding of a fresh green leaf. Untouched. Seeking out the sun.
“Is there . . . in-breeding in Farrow?”
He paused. He’d questioned it too, seen what might be the consequences, though he couldn’t be sure. He’d wondered if one of the reasons the guild hadn’t already forced her out of town was because she was fresh blood. The thought sickened him. “I don’t know. I wouldn’t doubt it. Those families . . . they stick together, not just in secret-keeping, but in all kinds of ways.”
She flinched. “When you say they keep each other’s secrets,” Scarlett went on, “do you mean like what was done to the natives?” She paused. “That was so long ago, though. Those men are dead and gone.”
“Those ones are, yes. But that’s where Lilith House comes in.”
She stared at him, unblinking.
“I lived at Lilith House all my life, Scarlett. You already know that. I . . . saw things.” Shame filled him for his inability to stop the evil he’d witnessed, his failure in preventing other people’s pain. Yes, he’d tried, but in the end, did it matter? Was that a solace to Georgia? To Mason? It was certainly no solace to the girls of Lilith House.
“What kind of things?” she asked warily. She had a right to be wary. He hated having to tell her the truth.
“The guild, they took advantage of those girls. With approval from the headmistress and a blind eye from the staff, the men drugged them and used them regularly.”
She did blink then, her pretty mouth falling open as a disbelieving horror took over her expression. “They . . . raped them?”
He nodded, swallowed. And yes, it was the word he should have used outright. To mitigate what they’d done with softened language made him culpable, even now. “Yes. Yes, they raped them.”
“Oh my God,” she breathed. “No one . . . no one ever went to the police?”
“No. And if any of the women suspected, they had no proof.” He paused. “Except one. Kandace Thompson.”
Scarlett blinked again. “You did know Kandace.” She sat back, her shoulders slumping. “And she . . . she was . . . raped?” The last word emerged as barely a whisper.
He nodded, his gaze locked with hers, a fresh bout of shame washing through him. The look on Scarlett’s face was killing him. “Yes. I knew Kandace. We were banned from interacting with the students but”—he smiled a sad smile—“Kandace was not a rule follower. She discovered me, us, and she became intent on finding the truth. She found out who our mothers were. She had proof.” He shook his head. “She took some files or . . . I don’t know. She didn’t tell me what she had, only that she was going to bring help. She was going to take that place down.”
“Oh my God,” she repeated, looking shell-shocked. “Did she really run away, Camden? Or . . . did they do something to her?”
“I don’t know that either. All I know was that she planned to leave, to escape. As far as I know, she did, but she never came back. A week later, the fire happened.” His mind traveled back to the day she ran, how he’d picked the fresh mushrooms for her and left them at the top of the crawlspace where she could access them. How nervous he’d been, how relieved when he’d listened through the walls to them shouting about how she’d gotten away . . . and how she hadn’t come back . . . not a day later, not five days later . . . never as far as he knew. And he had no idea if that was because something more terrible had happened to Kandace, or because she’d changed her mind about rescuing him.
He’d been abandoned before. He was used to it.
Scarlett sat forward, gripping the couch cushion. “Camden, we have to go to the authorities. We have to—” She shook her head. “Wait, you are the police.”
“Yes. Like I told you, the woman who tutored us took me with her to San Diego. She gave me her name. I kept in close touch with Georgia and Mason, who’d been taken in by members of the guild. Of course, we call Mason’s father his father, but we have no clue. Nor who my father might be. We had a plan. We were going to save our money, buy Lilith House. We were going to find that proof Kandace hid, whether in the walls or in the woods, or maybe somewhere buried in the sheriff’s office for all we knew, and then we were going to take down the people responsible for what happened there.” He eyed her, saw her mind racing to keep up with all the information he was dumping on her. “Mason already worked at the hardware store owned by the family who took him in after Lilith House, and I applied to be deputy sheriff.”
“They trusted you?” she asked. “After what they’d done to you?”
He gave a small shrug. “I don’t know. It might be part of the reason they brought me on, to keep an eye on me. I know things about them. I saw it firsthand. It’s a reason to keep me close, keep me in the fold so to speak. As a son of Farrow, they’re considering me to join the Guild.”
“Oh,” she breathed. “And Mason?”
“Mason hasn’t inquired. For our purposes, only one of us needs to join.”
She pressed her lips together momentarily. “And Georgia?”
Camden shook his head. “The Women’s Guild? No. Women, especially women like Georgia, are not . . . thought well of in Farrow, Scarlett.” He felt a pang to his heart. They had made Georgia the “type of woman” she was and then castigated her for it. That alone had fed his hatred for
years.
He worried his lip for a moment. “That flyer? The one you said you found on the street in Los Angeles? The one with the Lilith House sale information?”
She tilted her head. “Yes?”
“I think I was the one who dropped it.”
Her eyes widened. “You? How do you know?”
“Because people from Farrow rarely leave, much less guild members. But . . . I was in LA a few months ago. I’d . . . needed to get away.” He looked away, recalling that day. “I’d requested to become a guild member, and attended an informal meeting. They didn’t divulge anything useful, just questioned me a lot about my time away from Farrow, but on my way out, I was handed a flyer that held basic guild information. I stuck it in my pocket as I left.” He paused. He’d felt trapped, edgy. “I got in my car and just started driving, following the signs to Los Angeles.” He shook his head as a sigh emerged. “That restlessness we talked about . . .” He looked up, met her eyes. “It led me here, Scarlett. To you.”
Her throat moved as she swallowed. She opened her mouth to speak and then closed it, looking away for a moment. She was quiet for several minutes and he left her to gather her thoughts. Finally, she asked, “How do you even have birth certificates? Paperwork?”
“There are ways to apply for that if you were home birthed and there was no record created at the time. It happens somewhat often in religious communities. But in any case, the guild is in charge of—”
“Farrow public records,” Scarlett finished. She brought her hand to her forehead and left it there for a few moments as if she had to physically hold in the information her brain was processing. “The whole school, it was a racket?”
Camden considered that. “I guess you could call it that, but, Scarlett, like I said, these people believe in the righteousness of what they were doing, just as the original guild did. I don’t know if that makes it better or far worse, but it’s just the way it is. Even Jill—Ms. West—justified some of it until the end.” His brow dipped momentarily, the complex feelings he still had for her coming to the surface. She’d participated in the heinous things that went on at Lilith House, but then she’d rescued him from it, refusing to speak of it after that, though she always seemed to be a basket of nerves. Sometimes he wondered if it had eaten away at her to such an extent that she’d literally made herself sick. He knew now she worried needlessly. No one was coming after her. Farrow was where their power lie. And neither he nor she were valuable enough to them anyway.
“That’s why you became the sheriff’s deputy? Why you’re trying to become part of the guild? To catch them doing something you can use against them?”
“We’ll use whatever we can to try to bring justice to those who deserve it.”
“Including yourself. And . . . your friends.”
He nodded once.
Scarlett sat back, sinking into the couch. She looked shocked and angry and confused. Overwhelmed.
“Right now, we have no proof. We have nothing.”
Her eyes met his. “Especially since I bought Lilith House.”
“Yes.” It was true. They’d had this grand plan. It’d kept them going. They’d take the town down. They’d own the place where they’d once been made victims. They’d rule it all. Only, the more their plan had taken shape, the more specific it’d gotten, the more lust for power and revenge he’d seen in his friends’ eyes . . . and in all honesty, even in the reflection staring back at him from the mirror, the more he’d wondered how alike he and the other guild members really were.
Hadn’t Hubert Bancroft once lusted for power so strongly he was willing to forsake others for his own gain? Hadn’t he seen that very thing take hold of Georgia and Mason when Scarlett had moved in and upended all their plans? They’d been willing to terrorize her, and her child—young and innocent like they’d been when they were victimized—in order to move Scarlett and Haddie out of the way. In order to be rid of them. And then they’d both felt betrayed by him when he’d demanded they stop, when he’d protected Scarlett instead of menacing her.
He’d satiated them by recommending Mason for the renovation job, but that would only be temporary. Then what?
Then what would happen to this woman whose smile made him feel alive for the first time in his miserable life? This woman who set his body on fire, and his heart reeling in some way he couldn’t even describe?
He’d tried to feel those things for Georgie, he really had, but he never could manage anything more than deep abiding friendship, and a protectiveness he’d never quite lived up to. God, it made him feel guilty. Because he knew she loved him. She always had.
“You said the guild asked you to follow me from Farrow? Why? Where do I come into this?”
“They’re suspicious of you. They’re suspicious of your daughter. You—”
“What the hell could they be suspicious about in a seven-year-old girl?”
“Who knows, Scarlett? They’re not rational.” And they weren’t, and he knew Scarlett had every right to be angry. “You have a connection to Lilith House. You knew the one person who got away, whether she’s been heard from or not, whether she’s presumed dead or not . . .” He watched her closely, saw the flicker of sorrow in her expression. “They’re trying to learn more about you before they decide whether or not to let you stay for good.”
“Stay for good? How would they force me to leave?”
“They’d come up with a hundred ways. They’ve done it before, they’ll do it again. No one stays in Farrow who isn’t wanted there.”
“By the guild?”
“By the guild,” he confirmed.
She searched his face for a moment. “Wouldn’t that be more convenient for you? To let them do the dirty work of running me out of town?”
“Yes,” he admitted. He’d promised to be completely honest with her and he’d meant it. It would be easier. Apparently, though, somewhere along the line, Camden had decided against the easier path.
That day at the stream. Those peace-filled moments with her. The rightness. You know that’s when it was. That’s exactly when it was.
Scarlett stood, walking stiffly to the sliding glass door of the balcony and walking outside. He followed, and came to stand next to her at the steel railing, looking out over the city. He gazed at her, took in her profile, the slender line of her neck, the way a silken tendril of hair lay across her cheek. He longed to brush it aside, to say something that would wipe the deeply worried look off her face.
“Say something,” he said, his words choked.
She turned toward him, her gaze moving from one feature to the next. “I want to help,” she finally said.
He hadn’t expected that. He’d hoped to God he could trust her with his secrets—with their secrets for it was about Georgia and Mason too, it always had been, hadn’t it?—but he hadn’t expected Scarlett to offer her assistance. His heart swelled, happiness overcoming him. The problem was . . . “Unless you’re willing to sell Lilith House to us—”
“I’m not,” she said, lifting her chin. “I’m happy to hire Mason back if he’ll accept. I’m happy to give you access to any and every square inch of it. You can search the places you think Kandi may have hidden any proof she collected. I’ll help you do that. You can dig up the grounds if you want—they’re going to be re-done anyway, but I am not selling. Farrow needs to be wiped of corruption, its secrets exposed, this antiquated notion of fallen women erased, and whatever else they have going on that you don’t even know about, and I want to help with that. But I’m . . . we’re meant to be there, Camden, Haddie and I. I feel that in my bones. So many things, happening in just the right timing, brought me to Lilith House. Even before the day I found that flyer, that you dropped, circumstances beyond my control have been moving me toward Farrow, nudging me along, arranging the precise instances that would eventually take me there. Even the fact that I had the money to purchase it when I saw that it was for sale.” He watched her. He’d wondered about that. He knew how much
Lilith House had been listed for, and even though it’d been a bargain for what it was and the land it was on, it was still a hell of a chunk of change. It’d taken Georgia, Mason, and him years of scrimping and saving and they were only almost at that magic number that would have meant they owned it outright.
Scarlett hesitated for a minute, looking down and then meeting his eyes. “I told you about Haddie’s father and the contract. What I didn’t tell you is that Royce’s wife paid me off. She gave me a million dollars to sign that contract and never bother Royce again, never mention Haddie publicly.” Scarlett bit at her lip. She obviously felt ashamed of having taken money, but all he felt was respect. She’d raised the little girl all on her own, and with how rich he assumed Royce Reynolds was, Scarlett probably could have laughed in his wife’s face, and sued him for child support that would have amounted to a lot more than a million dollars. He probably made that in a weekend. Scarlett was proud, and he could tell that because of it, she believed she should have accepted Royce’s dismissal with dignity and asked for nothing.
“You were owed that money and more,” he said.
She let out a breath, turning her head and looking out at the city for a brief moment. “Maybe Haddie does, but not me. I put a little aside for her, but mostly, I’m planning on using it to renovate Lilith House and the surrounding grounds, to start my business.”
“That’s for Haddie too, Scarlett.”
She tilted her head, giving a small acquiescence. “I’ve been trying to look at it that way. It hasn’t come easy.”
“Hey,” he said, reaching out and using a finger to turn her face back to his when she’d looked away. “Let yourself off the hook. What you’re doing, it’s for both of you. Scarlett, you deserve your dreams.”
For a moment she closed her eyes, her lips turning upward in a sad smile. “Thank you,” she said. “Thank you for that.”
He paused, recalling something he hadn’t remembered until right that moment. “She told me about you,” he said.