What Happened, Miriela?

When I woke up, I was alone in bed. I frowned as I got up to use the bathroom before going to search for Brennan. When I stepped into the main office area, I immediately stepped back, muttering an apology when I saw a man I didn’t know speaking quietly to him.

“Phoenix, come here. There is someone I would like you to meet,” Brennan told me.

I hesitantly walked over to him, melting when he wrapped an arm around my waist to pull me onto his lap.

“Phoenix, this is Nathan, AKA Rowan.”

“It is nice to meet you, Rowan.”

He smiled brightly at me. “It’s so good to finally meet you! R. H. M. has spoken so highly of you.”

“He is a good guy,” I murmured as I tilted my head back to look up at the man in question.

“Baby, I know you just got back to Eden, but I was wondering if you would do something for me. Nathan needs help trying to get our newest member to open up a little. I think you are the perfect person to accomplish that. What do you say? Do you want to try to help her?”

I blinked in surprise but nodded. “Of course, I’ll help. Eden helped me so much. If I can do that for someone else, then I want to.”

“Alright. We’ll take you to her house, but first I need to explain to you why she’s here. When you first got here, you spoke of a woman named Miriela. I thought that she could help you if I found her for you. I asked Caleb’s bikers to find her. They—”

“Are you a biker, Nathan?” I asked as pieces started to click into place.

“Not exactly. I assisted them in looking for her.”

“Hmmm.”

“Nathan led the search for months, and when they finally found her, she had been taken by the cult you were part of. But unlike you, she was forced to live on the compound and was put through harsher treatment. Not that I’m trying to say that you weren’t abused, it’s just that—”

“It’s okay, R. H. M. I know what living on the compound consists of. Is she okay?” I inquired worriedly.

“She thinks I’m her ‘master.’ And there really isn’t anything I can say to her to make her understand that she doesn’t have to live like that anymore,” Nathan told me.

I climbed off Brennan’s lap before walking over to press the button for the elevator. “I want to see her.”

Nathan rushed to my side, and I could tell he wasn’t just worried about her, but he was excited to see her. Once we were inside the elevator, I turned to study Nathan’s face.

“You love her, don’t you?”

He flushed but didn’t answer. He didn’t have to. The look on his face said it all. As I walked toward the door, Brennan cursed loudly.

“Stay here! I’ll be right back.”

He quickly ran through the hidden door before reappearing a few minutes later with my shoes in his hands. He knelt at my feet to put them on me. When he stood back up, he put his arm around my waist.

“She’s in really bad shape, Phoenix. Rose and Doc have been trying to tend to her wounds, but she doesn’t talk to them. She only talks to Nathan, but not a lot.”

I nodded, smiling softly when we stopped outside of my old house. “Is she in here?”

“Yes. It was the only available house,” Brennan answered. “I’m going to wait out here. My presence still frightens her.”

I followed Nathan inside the house, frowning deeply when I heard little sounds of exertion. He stopped outside the kitchen, glancing at me.

“She’s in here. I keep telling her that she doesn’t have to scrub everything every day, but she doesn’t miss a day. I don’t know what else to do.”

I stepped past him and into the kitchen. She immediately climbed to her feet, wiping her hands on her apron as she turned around. She froze when she saw me, blinking repeatedly, almost as if she didn’t really believe that I was there, which I totally understood. I was having a hard time accepting that my best friend was standing in front of me. It was difficult to connect the happy-go-lucky girl I knew to this thin, traumatized woman I was looking at.

“Miriela?” I whispered as I stepped toward her. When she didn’t respond to me, my heart broke a little. “Miriela, it’s me. Leah.”

Again she didn’t react. All she did was stare at me. I slowly made my way over to her, keeping my movements simple and as non-threatening as I could. When I stopped in front of her, a tear rolled down her face.

“I looked for you,” she whimpered. “But I couldn’t find you.”

I wrapped my arms around her, pulling her in closer to me so I could hug her tighter. “You’re safe now, Miri. Whatever happened to you, you’re safe now,” I repeated over and over again like it was a mantra while she sobbed against my chest.

I ran my hands down her back, trying to ease some of her tension. As her sobs started to slow down, I pulled back a little to look into her eyes.

“How about some tea, Miri? I remember you always loved some peppermint tea. I can ask the guys to go get some for us.”

She hesitated before sighing. “I have to ask if—”

“No, Miri. You don’t. This place isn’t the cult. You get to do whatever you want here, and no one will punish you for it.” I went to the kitchen door, not surprised to find Nathan still hovering outside of it. “Can you ask R. H. M. to get us some peppermint tea?”

He nodded and instantly turned around to do as I asked while I went over to the stove to start the teapot. Once it was started, I turned around to face her, leaning against the counter behind me.

“What happened when you looked for me?” I pressed lightly.

She hesitated, glancing over her shoulder anxiously. I moved across the room to step into her line of vision.

“What happened?” I repeated.

“I should wait for—”

I tilted my head as I considered my options. If I pressured her too much, she might shut down on me too. I knew how deeply obedience was ingrained into the women the cult ‘trained.’ I finally nodded as I reached out to take her hands.

“Alright, Miri. We will wait for him to get back.”

As I was searching for a snack for us to eat with our tea, Nathan came back in, holding a small box of peppermint tea. I took it from him before nodding my head at Miriela.

“Is it okay with you if she speaks freely with me?” I asked, trying to convey with my eyes that she needed his approval to feel comfortable interacting with me more.

He turned toward her. “Do you want to speak freely with her?”

Miriela’s eyes widened, and I turned back to the stove to hide my smile. It had taken me less than a second to understand what he was doing. He was letting his approval or disapproval be based on what she wanted. Choice was not something that she had been allowed to have during her time at the cult. But I also knew that giving her too much all at once might freak her out. The cult’s training was intense and violent, which was why it was so successful. My heart broke even more that she had gone through that, and it was because she cared enough to look for me.

“Y-yes, Nathan.”

“I want you to spend your time with her in whatever way you feel comfortable. If you are not comfortable, I want you to tell her you’re not comfortable,” Nathan told her softly. “Okay?”

“Yes, Nathan.”

“Miriela, Phoenix, I will be outside if you need me.”

I smiled at him as I set a mug of tea in front of Miriela. “Thank you.” I waited for him to leave before taking a sip of my tea. “So, Miri, what happened when you went looking for me?”

She remained quiet for a moment, just sipping on her tea,  and when she lifted one of Rose’s famous brownies to her mouth, I silently celebrated.

“I went to your father’s address.”

She fell silent again, and as much as I wanted her to continue, I chose to also remain quiet. I wanted her to guide the conversation. I wanted her to talk to me because she chose to, not because I pressured her.

“When I asked to speak to you, he invited me in to wait while he got you.” She swallowed hard as her head dropped. “Your mother came out to talk to me, and a few minutes later, something hit me on the back of the head. When I woke up, I was tied to a bed.”

“And then?” I asked softly.

She lowered her head more. “I was theirs…”