Page 58 of Born to Scar

We nod. That’s reasonable.

“I’ve already pulled his public records and looked through them. There isn’t much. Everything you’ve said she’s told you is true. He has lived in that house for years. Jennifer’s death certificate states it was a self-inflicted injury. Her mother’s shows a stroke. There isn’t much on Indy. She has done a damn good job of flying under the radar.” He sighs. “What are you looking to get out of this, Cam?”

“Right now, information.”

He nods once. “To see if she’s telling the truth or to see if he is hiding something?”

“Both.”

My head jerks to Cam. The jolt of anger that shoots through me is unexpected but not unwarranted. “What the fuck?”

“It’s not like that, Jay. I believe her. I want to make sure she didn’t mistake anything for something it wasn’t, before doing something irreversible.”

My eyes narrow on him. “How the fuck would she mistake being raped and cut for fighting back? For fucking years!” I snap. “Please, explain to me how she mistakes him forcing her to watch as he did the same shit to her mother and sister. The fucking whip!”

“Jesus,” Ken whispers with a wince. “He’s right, though, Jared. Having all the information is important in cases like this.”

“Yeah. Well, tell that to the girl who has scars on nearly every inch of her body.”

“I’m going to get medical and police records, as well. I already have my guys working on them. We’ll look over everything and give you the details.” He sighs a long and heavy breath of air. “I’m going to be honest. Dirty cops can hide a lot of shit. There may be some”—he pauses, looking between us—“shit in these files you aren’t ready for.”

We nod, but I can’t imagine it can get worse than that Sunday morning, her sitting in that bed, ripping our hearts out. Or her trembling so hard on my chest, that I felt it in my soul.

While we are eating, Ken’s phone pings. “Oh, we might have something already.” As he is reading, his face drops. He’s looking at his phone in disgust and shakes his head. My eyes meet Cam’s. “She was sixteen when she left?”

“Yeah.” His eyes narrow on his screen.

“This fucking guy has more paperwork in his file than I have ever seen. Almost all of it is from someone in that house calling for help. How the fuck did he get away with this?” His brows furrow as he reads. “Almost every report states signs of abuse. I don’t understand how it was never investigated. Even after she left, there were several calls from her mother…Oh, it was investigated.”

My eyes meet his, and he continues. “He got out of it. He just had to attend a seminar and, with the help of the already rock-solid alibi of his daughters being suicidal, the investigators didn’t believe the girls. He got a slap on the wrist. He put a lot of fucking thought into getting away with this. Jennifer filed so many reports on behalf of Indy after she turned eighteen. She was fighting hard to get them out of there. I wonder…” He trails off.

“If he found out and killed her for it,” I finish. Ken nods. This would destroy Indy if it’s true.

“It’s just a hunch right now, and I clearly have some work to do here. Until we learn more, make sure he doesn’t get close. He is too dangerous.”

“We need to make sure he doesn’t catch on to you snooping around,” Cam warns.

An easy smile crosses Ken’s face. “Cam, my guys are very good at what they do. The last thing you need to worry about is us getting caught. You just need to keep her safe.”

CHAPTER 25

CAM

Ken has been giving us a deeper look into Indy’s childhood, the parts she maybe didn’t know about. Every day we uncover something worse than the day before. There’s so much on paper. I can’t imagine the reality of it. No wonder she pushes everyone away. She’s terrified of getting close to anyone. It’s a miracle she has the relationships she does.

He did something to both Jenny and Indy at twelve that is unfathomable, even for what we already know. If it’s true, it changes everything. I have no idea how he was able to pull it off, and I wonder if she even knows. She’s never mentioned it if she does. My gaze flickers over the papers for probably the hundredth time.

“Is this even legal?” I ask Ken.

He huffs a mirthless laugh. “Technically, yes. There’s no age limit on it in most states. While legal, ethically, it’s a horrendous practice unless deemed necessary. I’ll be looking into those doctors, too. But chances are they aren’t in practice anymore.”

I fucking hope so.

The more we dig, the more I want him dead. He’s a worthless human who won’t be missed. There’s no way Indy knows the extent he went through to keep all of this quiet. Every medical record on them shows signs of trauma, signs of abuse. Jenny and Indy both had told their doctors about what they were going through. No one ever helped them. No one listened. Not once.

Again, it’s no surprise she has no faith in people, never asking for help and flat-out refusing it when offered. You have to do it for her. Bik told me that the night her bike was hit. I knew I would never hear from her about getting that money from insurance. This is why. She was trained at a very young age to rely on no one. If she couldn’t count on the people who were supposed to love her, how could she count on anyone?

“They told so many people. No one helped them,” I whisper, reading the new paper in front of me.