“Sounds like cocaine,” Wyatt added helpfully.
Now the murmuring from the crowd grew, but the angry gazes focused on my father and away from me.
“There was a secret ledger as well,” I added. “Locked in the drawer of your desk. Tracking huge income for regular deliveries. Income that far exceeds anything we get from the farm.”
“What is she talking about, Amos?” came the voice of Samuel King, another longtime member of the council.
“Don’t listen to my foolish girl,” my father said, shaking his head. “What would she know of such things? I fear her head has been filled with fantasies by this English man.” He pointed at Wyatt. “They’re clearly spreading lies in an attempt to distract us from the real issue. How he had come in under the cover of darkness to steal her away, and who knows what else.”
“We found him fighting with another man by the church,” said Thomas, one of the men holding Wyatt.
“You see,” my father agreed immediately. “This man is here for no good purpose. He was sent by the devil himself to cause mayhem and havoc. To sow distrust and suspicion among a people dedicated to honesty and righteousness.”
“He was saving me,” I snapped. “From one of the same English men you sent to retrieve me during Rumspringa. Who was that man, father? Why are you doing business with such an evil person?”
“More fantasies,” my father said, shaking his head.
“It’s easy enough to prove,” Wyatt called out. “Let’s just go look in your office and see what’s there.”
“We don’t take orders from you,” my father snapped. “We must cast this man from our village immediately.”
There was more muttering from the crowd, as people argued back and forth. Some siding with my father, saying we should pay no heed to this outsider, while others saying that since I had made the same claim, they should at least check the office.
“I’ll tell you why he’s afraid to have you look,” Wyatt called out, voice rising above the crowd. “It’s one of the reasons my brother and I came to get Beth out of here. We have no beef with the Amish, you have all always kept to yourselves and been good neighbors to Bright Falls. But we just learned it was that very reputation that was being exploited, and has been for years. Amos Miller has been using your home to smuggle cocaine for the Bright Falls Beasts—a motorcycle gang that has been selling them illegally throughout Bright Falls and other nearby towns for years. He’s been secretly getting rich by selling this poison, and putting your whole community at risk.”
There was shocked silence for a moment, and then Samuel King’s voice rang out once more. “These are serious allegations, Amos. I think we need to at least have a look in your office before we can dismiss them all out of hand. Please give me your keys.”
Father’s gaze was darker than I’d ever seen it as he glared at Wyatt. I could almost hear his mind working, trying to figure a way out of this.
“I don’t have them with me,” he said. “I’ll need to return home to get them.”
It was a delaying tactic I was sure, but it wasn’t going to work.
“No need, father. I have your keys right here.” I raised the keyring I had stolen earlier, giving it a little shake. It was a mistake, and my father countered it immediately.
“Ah! You see? Beth and this man have stolen my keys. No doubt that if there is anything in my office, they have planted it there.” I gasped aloud at the accusation as Samuel turned his eyes to me. I could see the doubt behind them.
Father paused for a moment, letting his accusation take seed in the minds of the community and then continued, with one last attempt to prove his case by attacking my credibility. “I hadn’t wanted to believe it earlier, which is why I had claimed that my daughter had turned from the wickedness of the Devil’s Playground, but it is clear now how completely she was deceived after all. I fear that she came back impure, not just in her mind, but in her body as well. Ruined by this English man and no longer fit for a proper Amish husband. She is now willing to say and do whatever she can to hide her true shame.”
I felt a stab of betrayal in my heart that was worse than any knife. How could my own father be so desperate to hide his own disgrace that he was willing to shift the shame to me? The worst part was, I knew how effective his argument would be with the men of our village. Even the face of Samuel King was turning from me now, as if unwilling to gaze upon my impure and damaged soul.
I had just about given up hope when a new speaker came forward. My mouth dropped in shock, as did my father’s, as soon as she spoke.
“This again?”
My mother stepped out of the crowd, long hair hidden behind a hastily fastened bonnet that she must have put on quickly before leaving the house to investigate Ash’s commotion. She was glaring at my father in a way I’d never seen before.
“When you made similar claims against Hannah, I believed you, Amos, as a good woman always takes the side of her husband. But now here you are, making similar claims about Beth—and again only after serious accusations are made against you.”
“My only failing was in raising disappointing daughters,” father growled, turning his angry eyes on my mother now. “I was blaming myself for raising them without proper respect for their father, but now I’m beginning to see where they get their disobedience from.”
“What are you talking about mother?” I asked, my ears still ringing with the sound of Hannah’s name. “What did he say about Hannah?”
My mother shook her head, her voice only barely audible. “It’s too terrible to talk about. I couldn’t believe it at the time, but now… if Amos is lying tonight, he was likely lying then as well. What have I done?” Even in the dim light of the lanterns around us, I could see the tears ringing her eyes.
“Go ahead,” my father demanded. “Ask your daughter about her purity. Ask her to tell you true, whether she lay with this man or not?”
I felt my teeth clench as the attention of the community turned to me once more. Having sexual relations outside of marriage was a big sin amongst the Amish, but I would hardly be the first to commit it and there were worse things as well. It was embarrassing to admit, and would certainly mark me forever, but only if I was planning on staying here.
“It’s true,” I said, taking a deep breath. “I will own up to the fact that I did things with Wyatt that we have been taught to only do after marriage. But I do not feel shame about them. I did what I felt was right for me, and I did them with the man that… I love.” I looked now at Wyatt, and his eyes lit up at my declaration. “And you may all judge me as you must for that. But while I did what I did for love, my father’s sins were simply out of greed. If my actions hurt anyone, they hurt me alone, no one else. But what my father is doing is putting everyone here at risk, and hurting many others. Go, take these keys. You’ll see what is hidden in his office, and you’ll know by the sheer amount that I could not have put it there myself, and if Wyatt was to have brought it, he would have had to bring it in with a car or buggy—yet no one saw him come in. And in the drawer, you’ll find a ledger, in my father’s handwriting, that will prove things even further.”
Just then, the men that had chased down the tattooed thug returned, holding his arms and leading him just as they still held Wyatt. His face was bloody, and he was looking around wildly, sneering at everyone. As he stopped within the circle of Amish, he looked directly at my father.
“Tell these assholes to let me go, Amos.”
There was a gasp from many nearby at the familiarity with which he addressed Father.
Samuel King walked forward finally, taking the keys from my hand with a nod.
“This is preposterous,” my father sputtered, but most were ignoring him now as conversations sprouted everywhere at once, like weeds in a freshly sprouted field.
I moved to my mother, putting my hands around her. “Tell me,” I pleaded. “What happened to Hannah?” My mother just shook her head again, burying her face in my shoulder with a sob.
“Your father happened to her.” This time it was Ash who spoke, stepping out from the crowd. Many of the conversations died away as he continued. “He was right about her losing her innocence as well, only with her it was stolen. By him and some of the other men in this place.”
There were more gasps this time, as well as cries of shock and horror at the accusation. I pulled back from my mother, but she wouldn’t look at me. “Is this true, mother?” I asked, this time in my native tongue.
She sobbed louder now, nodding. “I should have believed her when she told me, only how could I? How could I believe her own father would do such a thing?”
“More lies,” I could hear Father protest, only this time his voice had lost some of its confidence as the crowd no longer seemed behind him. There were too many accusations now, with my own mother supporting them.
I didn’t want to believe it, but it all made sense. The way Hannah had changed so suddenly, growing more distant before finally disappearing completely. How strongly she wanted us to leave as well, and how much she had done to try to keep us safe and from going back. It had to be true. My father wasn’t just hurting people with the drugs he was selling, but more directly as well. And his own daughter?
My head was spinning—rage filling my heart, pouring into my veins until I was literally seeing red. I finally understood how Wyatt felt when he saw someone trying to hurt me. All I could think of was hurting my father. Of forcing upon him a punishment equal to his crimes. Even if the community believed everything he’d done, how could I trust them to punish him? If he apologizes, they may even forgive him. At worst they’d cast him away. How was that justice?
Despite being taught how important forgiveness was since my earliest recollection, this was not something I could ever excuse. I had been living with a monster my entire life.
Something on the ground near me gleamed for a moment, caught in the light from a nearby lantern as it swung from a gossiping woman. Everyone was distracted now, conversations and arguments springing up from all directions as if they were already trying to determine where the true guilt lay. But I couldn’t leave something like that to chance.
Before I could talk myself out of it, I ran for the knife, snatching it from the ground and turning on my father. He was distracted as well, arguing with some of the elders. No doubt doing his best to convince them of his innocence. I could see in their faces that they wanted to believe him. He was Amos Miller. Any involvement of his in any of this might just be a misunderstanding. Or worse, maybe some of them were even involved and would be willing to prove his innocence by any means necessary in order to keep their own shame from being discovered.
My fingers gripped the hilt as I stepped forward, intent on making sure that my father could never hurt anyone again.
“Wait!”
The only voice that could have possibly stopped me cut through the noise.
Wyatt.
“Don’t do it,” he pleaded. He’d wrenched himself free and moved to stand a few feet away from me, hands and fingers outstretched.
“Why not? My father deserves this. He deserves justice. More than he’ll get here if I do nothing. Punishment isn’t the Amish way, and he deserves punishment.” The anger made my voice sound harsh in my own ears. I could see some in the crowd turn to us again, shocked expressions focused on the knife in my hand. The conversations and arguments began to die away around us.
“Because he isn’t worth it,” Wyatt argued. “He isn’t worth ruining your own life over. He’s hurt and destroyed enough people. I couldn’t bear to think about him destroying you as well. You can’t take back doing something like this.” He nodded at the knife.
I met his eyes, seeing the warmth and caring in them, but the anger as well. He knew how much my father deserved to be punished, and more than anyone else I’d expected Wyatt to be the first one to want to deliver it. But he was right. There would be no coming back from this. As much as I felt it was deserved, killing my father would haunt me for the rest of my life.
Wyatt moved forward, taking the knife from my hand as my grip on it relaxed, then pulled me forward into a fierce hug. “He has to pay,” I whispered.
“I know.”
“He isn’t going to get justice here.” I pulled away from Wyatt’s grasp and turn back to the men and women standing and watching.
“My father has lived here for longer than most of you have been around, and for years he has been lying to you. Using the good reputation of this village to commit terrible crimes. Not just on strangers that he was selling his poison to, but against his own daughter. Maybe some of you knew about that, yet you said and did nothing. Do you truly believe that if he apologizes and asks for forgiveness that he means it? Do you think that will turn him back into a proper, God-fearing man? Each day since he began, he’s had a chance for remorse and to beg for absolution, yet he never did. Not once. Even now he denies everything, despite an office filled with evidence.”
“God will make him pay,” came a voice from the crowd. “He has a plan for us all, even the sinners. It is not for us to judge his will.” Others murmured their agreement.
I turned back to Wyatt in frustration. “You see?” I said. “There’s no point.”
“My daughter is right.” Again the sound of my mother’s voice surprised me. “I turned from my eldest daughter when she first came to me with her claim about my husband. I didn’t want to believe, and he professed his innocence, offering excuses and his own accusations. I took his side, to my great shame. But it seems as though those who profess the most innocence sometimes hide the greatest sins. Even after the horrors he put my Hannah through, he continued sinning in other ways. With my Beth back, I fear to think of what he may have done to her eventually as well. What he’s done is unforgivable. And he deserves more than to simply be cast out from the community. He deserves true punishment.”
Many voices rose up then, but most spoke against my mother’s words.
“It is not the Amish way.”
“Punishment is left to God.”
“Trust in his plan.”
My mother turned to me, the tears still falling from her defeated eyes. “I’m sorry,” she said. I pulled her into my arms.
“I can’t believe they aren’t going to make this piece of shit pay,” Wyatt muttered next to me.
“Maybe they won’t,” Ash spoke up suddenly, reaching into his jacket pocket and pulling out his phone. “But I know someone else who finally might.”
28
Wyatt
I gotta admit, I was pretty impressed with how fast the cops got there. Guess it helped that Ash and Hannah had already spoken to the detective about Beth’s father in the past, and so a call from Ash telling them that the same scumbag had an office filled with enough coke to impress a jaded Columbian got them off their ass.
Reid arrived shortly after the cops, having followed their wake as they came screaming in with sirens and lights blazing. What was more surprising was seeing Sarah and Hannah show up just a few minutes later.
“I thought I told you two to wait for us back home,” Ash said in mock anger, giving Hannah an accusatory poke in the ribs.
“Have you met me?” she asked, her tongue making a brief appearance from between her lips, pointed in his direction. “We parked up the road from Reid, waiting for your call on my cell. I didn’t want to be far in case something went wrong.”
“Great lookout job, bro,” I laughed.
Reid gave me the finger as he shrugged. “My job was watching the entrance, not the whole fucking perimeter.”
As soon as Beth spotted Hannah, she ran over and the two of them had a tear-filled reunion, with Beth apologizing over and over and Hannah telling her, between her own sobs, that it wasn’t her fault and that there was nothing to apologize for, and that she should have trusted her sisters to believe her and told them long ago instead of leaving them here, in harm’s way. Soon Sarah and their mother joined in, and me and my brothers just backed
up to give them space.
I think it was around that time I got something in my eye.
Anyway, as it turned out, it was a good thing Hannah had shown up because true to form, most of the Amish refused to talk to the police about one of their own.
Many of them were simply standing back and watching everything with wide eyes. I guess when you grow up in a world without television or movies, something like this must seem like grand entertainment. But there were also quite a few that were casting very nasty glances towards Beth and Hannah as the sisters willingly gave their own statements to the police.
Not that Hannah had known any details about the drugs, but she was very cooperative in naming names and pointing fingers at the elders that had been involved in abusing her. Those accusations just made the disapproving scowls grow even worse, as further Amish were rounded up for questioning.
I wasn’t sure the cops were any more able to do anything about that now than they had been when Hannah had first gone to them, but it at least gave them some other members of the community to investigate beyond just her father, and who knew how many other dark secrets they held. I thought it was pretty unlikely that old Amos was running a completely one-man show here. As trusting and naïve as these people were, it would be very hard to keep an operation like this entirely hidden from everyone. Not when he was running things out of his own office. I’d be willing to bet he had some inside help, and those assholes that had been involved in abusing Hannah were a perfect place to start looking.
Beth’s father and the tattooed mother fucker that worked for him were taken away pretty quickly after the cops arrived. The drugs and paperwork in Amos’ office were pretty damning, and although it was only our word at this point that the two men worked together, the detective was willing to give the benefit of the doubt to the ones that had tipped them off to everything in the first place.
The Brody Bunch Collection: Bad Boy Romance Page 60
