Page 6 of Journey To Sunrise

“Damn right she did. But it was because of how she treated you girls. Brad wanted to help, but you stubborn Avery girls wouldn’t have allowed anybody to do anything outright. Dad and Brad had to be sneaky.” I shook my head. “You’re a bunch of hard-headed broads.”

Zoe barked out a laugh, just as I’d hoped. I relaxed.

“Broads?”

“The terms fits.”

“Hard-headed doesn’t fit for Chloe right now. She doesn’t answer her door anymore,” Chloe whispered. “She just answers the phone. Even when Trenda brings Bella over, she won’t answer the door.”

“How old is Bella?”

“For God’s sake, you send birthday and Christmas gifts, and you don’t know that she’s three?” Zoe gave him an incredulous look.

“I’m a guy. Sue me.” Trenda had sent him pictures of her daughter. She was a doll. She was going to look just like Chloe.

I looked at Zoe intently. “How bad was it? Really?”

“She only needed to stay in the hospital for four days.” Zoe put down the biscuit with precise movements.

“Only?” I said aghast.

“It could have been a lot worse. She ended up with a concussion and two broken ribs. To begin with, they were afraid one of her kidneys might have been ruptured, but it was just badly bruised from where he kicked her.”

I thought I would throw up.

“What happened when she left the hospital?”

This time it was Zoe’s turn to lift an eyebrow. “What do you think? Trenda demanded she stay at her house. But it was awful. Chloe was like a zombie. Not even Bella could make her smile. She stayed for a month. Then she left. It was a fight, but she won.”

“How long was she held hostage?”

“Four hours. The beating lasted for thirteen minutes, before she passed out.”

“Evie timed it?” I seriously thought the orange juice I’d drunk might end up on the table.

“Maddie did. Evie was planning the rescue, so Maddie had to hear it over the phone, but Evie had to watch it.”

“But she timed it?”

“What do you think?” Zoe leaned in across the table. “Every moment will always be etched into both of my sisters’ brains. They couldn’t do a goddamn thing to stop them, not while guns were trained on those other girls. Evie had to wait for a diversion. As soon as everything was in place, Evie killed that motherfucker for what he did to Chloe. So yeah, those thirteen minutes when Chloe was tortured, they remember it like it happened to them.” Tears plopped down onto the plate of biscuits. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Pearl carrying food to the table. I gave her an imperceptible shake of my head and then she turned and walked away.

“I didn’t know,” I said helplessly.

“Well now you do.” Zoe took a deep breath. “But that’s not the worst of it. What’s the absolute worst, is that it should have been me. I should have been the one to take that beating.”

“What are you talking about?” I thought I’d fallen down a rabbit hole. Zoe was talking crazy.

“They wanted to torture any Avery sister. I should have been in that cabin. If I had been, they would have tortured me. I’m tougher, I could have taken it. Hell, I’d been the one to talk Chloe into going to the party in the first place. It should have been me, not her.”

“Where were you?”

“I was off with a friend.”

I didn’t need to hear anything else. Zoe had left with some guy. It was her MO. I looked at my childhood friend, who was almost a mirror image of Chloe, and my gut clenched.

“I’m glad it wasn’t you,” I said softly.

“I’m not. If I hadn’t been such a self-centered bitch, going off with some guy with a cool truck, it would have been me. Chloe’s too good a person to have this happen to her.”