Chapter 192

“Daphne… I tried… I told my parents everything, and they did their best. But there wasn’t enough proof at the time, just my word against his, and –”

“Save your excuses,” Daphne says.

Her face is perfectly done, with expensive, high quality makeup hiding every poor and wrinkle. Her brows are perfectly waxed, her mascara sharp as a point. She looks so different from the disheveled girl that I grew up with. The girl who I had sworn to be friends with forever. Though I imagine I look very different too.

But right now, that perfect face is twisted up in rage and years-old hatred.

“Do you even hear yourself?” Daphne continues. “’I told my parents...’ A luxury I never got to experience. How fortunate you are, Esther.”

“I know I’ve been lucky,” I say.

“Do you? Not only did you get parents, but you hit the parent jackpot. The Owens’s put you through college. They got you your connections and your jobs.”

I want to argue, telling her that I earned every job that I have. But even I can admit that having Owens as a last name benefited me greatly over the years. Even after I married, people knew me as that Owens girl.

At the orphanage, we didn’t have last names.

“I’m sorry,” I tell her, not knowing what else to say. I was gifted a life of a privilege, but that doesn’t change my feelings of comradery for her. Nor does it ease away the pain and trauma of what I experienced under the room of Edward Zimmer.

“You should be sorry. You don’t know half of what I experienced in that orphanage once you were gone. All of your clients came to me, Esther, but I wasn’t as good as you. They resented me, and beat me. All because you couldn’t stay. You abandoned me to face those monsters alone, and all the while you were living it up in some mansion somewhere, eating… I don’t know, fancy cheese or whatever rich people do.”

“I never forgot you,” I tell her.

“How sweet,” she says bitterly. “Too bad your thoughts weren’t enough to keep the monsters away from me.” She shakes her head. “And then I was alone. Do you understand? I had no one when you were gone. The other girls had already started turning against each other. Edward told us that if we kept each other in line, only the bad girls would be punished.”

Edward was always a damn liar. Daphne’s trembling, and the way she tugs at the long sleeves of her blouse, as if to further hide herself inside of it, tells me all I need to know there.

“As an adult, I went back to the orphanage,” I say, “but you and Edward, and anyone I knew were gone. The kids seemed actually taken care of. Things weren’t so bad. I checked.”

Garnar didn’t understand my compulsion to return. It was while we were still dating. I went a few times that year, just to be sure the kids were treated okay now and it wasn’t another Edward ruse. My suspicions seemed unfounded. Edward was long-gone by then.

So was Daphne.

“I didn’t know where to look for you after that.”

“Didn’t try too hard, either, did you?” Daphne says. “Do you know what happens to girls that turned 18 while at the orphanage?”

“They were kicked out,” I remember.

“They were sold off,” Daphne says. “What would you do? Live in the gutter, fighting for scraps of food, or become a paid live-in whore of a client? They gave food and clothing, shelter. All you had to do in return was spread your legs. At least until they grew bored of you. The trick is to never let them get bored.”

“Is that why you married Edward?” I ask.

“Whores don’t get marriage proposals,” Daphne snaps. “I’m above the rest. Maybe I started out that way. I turned 18, and Edward was going to throw me out. He always hated you, but had a soft spot for me. He was sometimes even gentle when he…”

My stomach twists into a bile-filled knot. Daphne herself looks unwell and stops herself before saying more.

“You could say that I seduced him,” she says.

I would not be saying that. Daphne had been a child for all but a day by this point. There was nothing seductive about any of this.

This, I realize, is how she managed to survive. She compartmentalizes everything. She takes ownership. She insists that she has power.

Even if she doesn’t.

“Several clients wanted me, but he took me in himself. I made myself useful, learning to cook and clean to his liking. Eventually, I even convinced him I loved him. I knew I won when he gave me a ring and made me his wife.”

“Daphne, that’s not winning…”

“Says you,” she says shortly, though then smiles a little. “Like a death knell, the wedding bells brought the end of his lust for me. He has many lovers, I assume, but I see none of them. As his wife, I don’t see much of him at all. I stand by him at these events. We make eyes for the public, but all I get from him now is money. Trust me, Esther. I’ve won. And unlike you, I fought my way to the top and earned every penny.”

There’s expensive diamond jewelry around her neck and fingers, and her clothes look like well-regarded name brands. Thea has that same belt, so I know it alone cost $400.

Daphne may live in luxury now, but I can’t fathom the cost was worth it. I wouldn’t tell her so. I know from experience that she didn’t have much choice. Or at least, she felt that she didn’t, which is much the same thing to an inexperienced girl who had been groomed by older, vicious men since her youth.

But she’s my age. We’re older now, in our thirties. Surely, she’s squirrelled enough money away by now to leave this monster.

“You don’t have to do this anymore,” I tell her. “You could leave him.”

She laughs. “Why on earth would I do that? Now? He’s going to be president. I’m going to be first lady. They’ll put my picture up in the white house. Do you know how amazing that is?” That smile starts to fade, revealing some of the hurt underneath. “I’m not going to abandon him now, when he needs me the most…”

“Is that you talking? Or him?” I ask.

Her face hardens at once and she glares at me. “Don’t patronize me.”

“I’m not trying to, Daphne. I’m just worried… We both know he’s a monster. You deserve so much better. If you would just –”

I feel the sting on my cheek before I register what really happened to me. It takes a moment to realize that Daphne has slapped me.

There aren’t many reporters back here, just a few documenting behind the scenes footage.

Unfortunately, it seems as if one of those cameras had been facing us just at that moment. The producer, watching us, goes wide-eyed with shock.

The light on the camera is red, recording every second.

God help me, are they live?