Page 26 of Gentle Love
“Yesterday, he told us some things I think you need to hear. Onyx agreed. He felt it would be best for your Little heart to hear it from John’s mouth directly,” Locken explained.
John? I furrowed my brows and looked up at them in confusion, tilting my head to the side.
“That’s his real name, Emily. John, not Malachi. You’ve been lied to a lot, princess,” Onyx said.
“Talk, asshole,” Locken barked into a speaker.
I jumped and he sent me an apologetic smile. “Sorry, Little one, I have to use my scary cop voice on these bastards.”
When Mal… John spoke, his voice wasn’t as commanding as I was used to. He just sounded tired.
“Where do ya want me to start?”
“Start with the founding of The Movement,” Locken ordered.
“William and Donna built The Movement. It was real good at first. Everyone felt included. Poor people was suddenly equal with the rich people. Some people had their own houses for the first time in years. William was a real good preacher. Taught me a lot. But about four years in, people was mad. The houses on the compound wasn’t safe. Mold was in ‘em and people was getting real sick. He said we ain’t have the money to fix them. They started asking him where it was, ya know all the money they gave him. He got real nervous and he and Donna ran away. He left the twins too. He said he’d been called to launch a new church and he left us them girls as a promise that one day the churches would be united. Once he was gone, the questions just kinda dried up,” he rambled.
“What happened then?” Onyx asked.
I could tell he already knew by the way he asked.
“I took over.” John sounded bored, his voice rote as he recited the answers he knew they wanted to hear.
“And?”
“People didn’t take to what I said as much as they did William. They started leaving by the dozens. We was losing children. We can’t have a future without the children.”
“And that’s when you decided to start marrying children to grown men?” Locken’s voice was an accusatory growl.
“Well, ain’t none of the women left young enough to chase after kids no more. I hadta do what was best for The Movement.”
He sounded so ignorant. His logic didn’t make sense.He was just a power-hungry predator.
“Why me? Why did you come back for me?”
His head shot up at the sound of my voice. “Don’t you go forgetting your place, Jez.”
“Don’t fucking call me that,” I replied, holding my head high, despite the fact that he still affected me. His power over me was fading and I wanted to make sure he knew it. “M-my name isn’t Jezebel. It’s Emily. It’s always been Emily. And my place is here in Strickland with the people that love me. Now tell me why you came back for me. You didn’t go after Rouge.” I was glad he hadn’t, but there had to be a reason why.
“Because Rouge was always too wild. She was never happy in our world. You ain’t like her at all. You have a subservient heart. You could help us build back up, Jezebel. That’s God’s plan for ya. Do you want to bring the condemnation of the Almighty down on your head?” I reached up and flipped the speaker off.
“I wanna see him,” I told Locken.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea, Little one.”
“I wanna see him,” I told Onyx instead. “I need to see him in person. I need to say something. I’ll never have peace if I don’t say it to his face.”
Onyx looked at Locken over my head and nodded. “Let me just talk to her first.”
“I’ll get him settled,” Locken answered.
Onyx stroked my cheek gently. “I want you to understand that the cult didn’t have as much power as they made you believe they did. They were not a legal organization and the police were often looking for various members. That’s why they changed their names once inside the compound. The compound was also illegal. That’s why there was no electricity or running water. They couldn’t get the permits for it because they couldn’t let anyone know where it was. There was so much child abuse happening that if you had gone forward, social services would have immediately stepped in. I’ll give you an example: Georgia only allows children to skip certain medical care if the religious organization is recognized. The Movement was never recognized.They broke the law by not allowing you all access to medical care and vaccines. Everything they did to you and the other kids was child abuse.”
She fell forward and sobbed into my shirt. I stroked her back gently and rocked her back and forth.
“I know he told you that the cult had split in half and there weren’t many children left, but truthfully, there are no children left because there is no cult left. Someone called a tip into CPS several years ago, and, upon investigation, all of the children were taken. The younger girls who had been paired with older men were gone. Only infants and toddlers were left, so they had no clue about child marriages, but they did have several counts of child neglect and abuse. The adults that were still a part of The Movement were taken in and were later charged with child abuse. John did some time and was released last year. He has nothing without you, Emily. He’s convinced himself that if he can get you to come back, the other members will come back too.”
“He’s not powerful, he’s desperate,” I said, my voice awestruck as I realized the weight of what Onyx was telling me. I felt like thousands of pounds had been lifted from my chest. All the stress and worry I had been carrying was gone.