As my father explains what happened, everything just clicks into place. Things just come together.

This whole time he was looking for me.

It’s just not fair. None of it is, not what happened to me, to Kodah, to my family… to every single kid who was forced to be a slave.

I can’t explain what I feel. The last few weeks it’s been one thing after another and I have yet to find the ground beneath my feet. I have yet to rise above, accept it all and heal.

Pacing like a caged in lion, Bo’s eyes gloss from reliving what him and my dad went through. “Bo,” I say pulling away from Kodah.

Spinning around he faces me and the sorrow I see keeps me rooted. This is all so fucked up.

“Where have you been, Emma?” his question comes out desperate, like he needs to know in order to breathe.

Shaking my head, I just stare at him. I know I’ll have to talk about it eventually but right now when emotions are high, I can’t even think about it.

But my father steps in.

“She where you were?” my dad asks, looking to Kodah. Turning back to face Kodah, I watch his jaw clench and his chin jerk in a single nod.

Silence ticks on and it’s as if the room has its own heartbeat.

Then he erupts.

Letting out a roar my dad jerks from the couch. Gripping the table in front of him, he flips it over causing everything to scatter and the wood and glass to split and shatter. As he steps on the mess, glass crunches under his boots. He storms up to me and I draw back, forcing Kodah to step in front of me, his hands raised.

“Get the fuck out of my way, Romeo.”

“No,” he says with finality. “We all need to calm the fuck down.”

Looking over Kodah’s shoulders my dad looks to me, death in his stare. “You a slave, Emmalyn?”

Opening my mouth, I stand there trembling not sure what to even say, when a shriek comes from outside the office causing all of us to jump.

“WHERE THE FUCK IS SHE?” A woman’s voice screams before pounding on the door. “EMMALYN! Pops, you open this fucking door right. Fucking. Now!”

Aunt Mel?

Opening the door Bo stands back and leans against the wall, his head to the sky and his face pinched in disbelief as flaming red hair flies in and stops right in front of me, mascara is running down her face.

With wide eyes, she takes me in. “Oh, my God! It is you…. Our little sunshine.”

Jerking forward she wraps her arms around me and squeezes the life out of me.

“I knew you would come back,” she cries and I can’t help but cry with her. “I fucking knew you would. Oh God, if only Rooster was here to see this.”

Pulling back, she still holds onto my arms.

“Where’s Uncle Rooster?” I ask, my voice hoarse.

Shaking her head, she sobs harder. “Oh, hunny, we lost him a few years back. Fucking cancer. Can you believe that asshole? Fucking left without me!” She lets out a single laugh before crying some more. “He’s probably drinkin’ and havin’ a smoke in his grave knowin’ his little sunshine is back home.”

So many years have gone by…

“Look at you,” she continues. “I always knew you would be so beautiful. Didn’t I always say you were blessed?”

Laughing and crying, I let her feel me up and look me over. I let her pull me away from the heavy and blanket me in the light.

“Where the hell have you been?” she asks, her voice more scolding then worried.

“With me.” The sound of Drifter’s weak voice draws all of our attention back to the door.

Standing there leaning against Buck, Drifter finds my stare and holds it. Before looking around he says, “We need to fucking talk.”

* * *

Sitting around the large rectangular table, nostalgia flows through me as I see myself as a little girl playing hide and seek in here.

Sitting next to me, Kodah pulls my chair close to his and grabs my hand, placing it in his lap. The events of last night seem like they happened so long ago, our time together drawn short. I almost wish we could go back to the little bubble we had created.

The things we have to face now are messy and complicated.

We were all played in different ways, yet all were tragic just the same.

Sitting at the head of the table my dad leans with his head in his hands. Next to him, Bo sits there staring at me and Drifter and Buck sit opposite from each other, both with a blank mask on their faces. “Where’s Bailey?” I ask and Buck shakes his head. “JB took her home. She’s okay, Emmy.” Relief leaves me on an exhale.

Looking to my father I watch him drop his arms to the table and stare at me and I truly see his age, I see what the years have done. “Tell me what happened,” he says, begging me for answers.

Gripping my hand tighter I look to Kodah, everything I need is reflecting in his eyes. It’s more than support, it’s more than encouragement, it’s his understanding and his love.

“You don’t have to do this right now, baby” he says his voice low. “You’ve been through enough. This can wait.” Looking around the table everyone looks just as exhausted as I feel. I need to get this out. I need to give my family the missing pieces to their puzzle so we can all start moving on.

Swallowing hard, I squeeze Kodah’s hand and look back to my father.

“I was a slave,” I start on a whisper and a ghostly chill consumes the room. “I don’t know why she did it.”

“Who Emmy?”

Looking down I just let the answer out. “Mom.” Looking through my lashes I watch his nose flare.

“When she showed up she said that you had sent her. She said that you no longer could take care of me, that you were getting too big and just couldn’t handle it anymore.” Lifting my head, his eyes narrow and calculating thoughts run through his mind but he doesn’t say anything, he just sits there and listens as I relive things I haven’t remembered in years. “She wanted to please him. She was always searching for his approval. When I got there, it was like he won the golden ticket. I became his daughter, everyone knew me as Emmalyn Nixon. I was treated differently than all the other kids.” Feeling Kodah tense beside me I meet his gaze, and the sadness and haunted memories flow through us both. “It was because of you I never lost myself,” I say remembering every time he was there for me. Forgetting about the rest of the room, I continue, “I would never have survived if it wasn’t for you.” I lean forward so just inches separate us as his jaw clenches and he brings our hands to his lips.

A throat being cleared pulls us apart but only slightly.

“I was about to be sold. I had no time left and right before then was when the raid happened and I was set free. Because of Drifter and Buck, every kid there was set free.”

“Why wasn’t this on the news? There should have been stories. We should have been contacted!” Bo demands looking to Drifter.

“We went against orders,” Drifter answers. “We had a plan and were supposed to stick to it; wait until things were in place, then take everyone down and free the kids.” Swallowing hard he looks to Kodah and me. “There just wasn’t enough time.”

“When did you find out it was my little girl in that place? When did this all start?”

Meeting my dad’s eyes, he continues not holding anything back. “I didn’t know it was her I was going in after.” Looking across the table to Buck, he continues, “When Buck hit me up and told me he needed my help, that he needed me to buy a girl so she wouldn’t be put in the wrong hands, I never put the pieces to-fucking-gether. I had no clue she was the same girl. It was supposed to be simple. Get in, buy the girl, get everything I needed to set up a legit raid, and get her and the hundreds of kids out.” Taking a deep breath, he looks back to me. “The moment I saw your picture that day, Emmy, I knew who you were.”

I suck in a breath as I remember the exact moment, remembering how his whole body had tensed while I sat in his lap and he looked at my file…I remember every small hint and moment after, too.

It was all there.

Turning back to my dad he finishes. “By the time I realized who she was, things were already in place and everyone’s lives were on the line.”

This time it’s Buck who speaks up. “Marx was tipped off.” His eyes meet every person’s in the room except mine. “I don’t think he ever knew who Drifter really was, considering it wasn’t the first time Drifter had bought from him to help someone out. But the second he got wind that he wasn’t there to buy and use Emmalyn just how he had groomed her, he backed out of the deal and he took the counteroffer. He got scared. Emmalyn had less than two weeks before she would have been lost like every other kid. So, we acted on impulse and the day she was going to be sold, we took matters into our own hands.” Something almost like lust shines in his eyes as he talks about what taking the matter in his hands means to him and I grip Kodah’s hands harder. Shaking off his trance he looks to my father. “That’s why it was kept secret. There was too much death and the government was involved. When things got out of hand they covered it up, paid off the hospital, cleaned up the bodies… it was like it never existed.”

But it did exist, and to every kid who was forced to be there… that place still exists.

“What I don’t understand is if you and my sister were holed up in the same place, why is it you showed up here five years before her, Romeo?” Bo asks, pointing to Kodah. “Why are you just now showing up, sis? What happened?” His voice grows hoarse with anguish. “Where have you been?”

Shaking my head, I bite my bottom lip, trying to keep my emotions in check.

I am so tired of crying. I am just so tired.

“I... A lot had happened. When I woke up in the hospital, everything became too much and my body shut down. I just couldn’t remember anything.” Trying my hardest to not let the tears fall, I keep going. “I couldn’t remember my family, I couldn’t remember what had happened.” I look to Kodah and can’t hold back the tears any longer. “And I couldn’t remember you.”

Swallowing hard he just stares at me with understanding and loss. The loss of all the years that place continued to take from us.

Meeting my dad’s ashen face, I say, “All I could remember were the basics. I knew who I was, my favorite color, my birthday…” Looking to Buck and Drifter I smile softly. “You were all I could recognize.”

“This whole time. For the last 5 years. She has been with you?” My dad asks looking to Drifter. “You knew where she was, you knew she couldn’t remember me and yet you never fucking called me?” Something in the way my father speaks puts frost on all the walls, the coldness of his tone sends chills and spreads goose bumps all over me.

He has reached his limit.

Before I can blink, guns are drawn across the table and Kodah pulls me from my chair and pushes me back against the wall, his chest to my front. Looking out from under his spread out arm, I watch as the men I love…my family, hold each other at gun point.

Everything stills.

“From the moment Drifter said he knew who Emmy was it was my decision to not tell you,” Buck says breaking the stare down. Placing his gun down on the table he stands tall. “I was the one who kept her from you. She had just gotten out of one of the largest child trafficking rings known to man and she was made to be the princess of all the slaves. When she got out and didn’t remember shit, it was her second fucking chance at life and I don’t care who the fuck you are to her.” Looking around the room he continues, “I don’t care who any of you fucking are to her, I would bury you in a second and not lose a second of sleep if I thought you would do anything to harm her recovery. This club you got here, two months ago would have had Emmalyn in a panic state of mind. We did what was fucking best for her.”

“And who the fuck are you to her?” my dad says not dropping his gun but shifting so it moves from Drifter to Buck. “How is it you were the one to contact Drifter? How is it you know so much about my little girl? Who the fuck are you?”

Something crosses Buck’s face.

Remorse?

Regret?

Acceptance?

Whatever it is has him giving me one last glance before facing back to my father.

“I was the head guard at that place. I was in charge of keeping all the kids in line.” Looking to me he finishes, “I was in charge of keeping Emmalyn in line.”

The sound of a gun going off causes me to scream. Spinning around Kodah throws his body over me as I stand there crouching against his chest. The sound of the door bursting open and men shouting comes through the ringing in my ears.

Buck?

No…

Oh God, no.

“Emmy! Emmy! He’s okay. Buck is okay! Shhhhh, baby, it’s okay!” Kodah shouts in my ear and I realize I’m still screaming.

Pulling away, Kodah grips my face and brushes my hair back as he looks down at me eyes wide. “It’s okay, baby. It’s okay. He’s okay.”

Frantically searching, I look for Buck and find him leaning against the wall with blood running down his arm. Leaving Kodah’s hold I rush over to him and stare at the hole grazed across the top of his skin.

This is so fucked up… everything is so fucked up.

“I’m so sorry,” I whisper. Looking up into his eyes he just stares down at me and whispers in a voice so low only I can hear, “I deserve so much worse.”

My heart.

“Buck-”

“Are you fucking done?” Drifter growls, pulling my attention.

Pulling his eyes away from Buck and me, my dad meets Drifter’s stare and answers with his voice low, calm, and deadly, “Right fucking now I feel far from done.”

“You want someone to blame?” Drifter asks not stopping. “You want someone to pay for what was done to Emmalyn?” Heaving he looks to Buck and Buck gives a small nod before resting his head back against the wall. “Marx and Maurice are still alive.” Drifter breathes before landing the last punch. “And we believe they are after Emmy.”