THE VOW

DETECTIVE ROLLINS

Priya drove like she was being chased. Because we were.

"How long have you been out?" I asked, holding Lena's b****y notebook.

"Eight months," she said. "I didn't crawl. I walked. Simone faked my Return. Told Eleanor I got in the van. But she hid me in House Three's panic room for three days until the buyer left. Then Mae - before Mae turned - drove me out the front gate. Said she was doing me a favor."

"Why didn't you go to the cops then?"

Priya laughed, hard. "I did. Atlanta Sheriff came to The Vow, had brunch with Eleanor, and then came to my motel and told me if I ever came back to that county he'd charge me with trespassing. They own this county, Zuri. That's why Lena wrote ATLANTA PD."

2:14 a.m. We hit Atlanta city lights. My feet were bleeding in Kevin's hoodie. We had no shoes.

Atlanta Police Headquarters, third floor. The desk sergeant looked at us - two Black girls, muddy, barefoot, one bleeding from the mouth - like we were on drugs.

"We need Detective Rollins. Crimes against persons," I said. "It's about human trafficking."

That got his attention.

He made a call.

Five minutes later, a door opened.

Detective Rollins was not what I expected. Young. Maybe 38. Black. Good looking in a tired way. Suit jacket off, sleeves rolled. He looked like someone who had seen too many dead wives.

"I'm Rollins. You asked for me by name. Who sent you?"

"Lena Carter," I said. "House One, 2018."

His face changed. Just a flicker. But I saw it.

He knew that name.

He led us into an interview room. No windows. He locked the door.

"Show me what you have," he said.

I put everything on the table. The USB. Lena's notebook. The photos from under the dock. The key with the number 1. The contract with Kevin's signature.

He picked up Lena's notebook first. Opened it to the last page.

_THEY ARE COMING TODAY. IT'S JUNE 10TH._

His hand shook.

"Where did you get this?" he whispered.

"Under my closet floor. Lena hid it."

He sat down hard. Put his head in his hands.

"Oh my God. Lena."

"You knew her?"

He looked up at me, eyes wet.

"Lena Carter was my fiancée. Before The Vow. She disappeared three days before our wedding. June 11th, 2018. Police said she ran. Her husband - Devon - said she had a mental breakdown. Eleanor Ellison told me she went to a wellness retreat. I never believed it. I've been trying to get a warrant for that place for four years. No judge will sign it. Eleanor donates to every judge in three counties."

Priya and I looked at each other.

The detective was Lena's fiancé.

"My mother," Rollins said quietly, "is Eleanor Ellison."

Silence.

"Eleanor is your MOTHER?" Priya screamed.

"Yes. She had me when she was 19. Gave me up. I found her ten years ago. Thought we could reconnect. Then girls started disappearing around her properties. All size 6. All June 14th. All connected to houses her LLC sold."

He slid a file across the table. Thick.

"I have been building this case alone. Twelve girls missing. Including Lena. Including now you two, legally still married to men inside. If I can get what's on that USB, I can get the FBI involved. Federal trafficking."

He plugged the USB into his laptop.

Video files. Dozens. Labeled by date.

He clicked the most recent: 2023-06-14_HOUSE-SIX_DELIVERY.mp4

The video was dark. The laundry house. Six men, including Kevin, standing in a line, heads down. Six women in white dresses, crying, being loaded into a white van with no windows. Eleanor checking a clipboard. Mae counting cash.

And in the background, counting the cash with Mae...

Simone.

Priya started crying. "No. No no no. Simone told me she was fighting..."

Rollins paused the video on Simone's face. She wasn't fighting. She was smiling. Counting money.

"Simone isn't Year Two," Rollins said. "Simone is Eleanor's daughter. My half-sister. She's the recruiter. She finds the size 6 girls at bridal shops. She drops off the dresses."

My phone buzzed. Kevin's hoodie pocket. My real phone.

Text from KEVIN:

_Zuri please come home. Eleanor says she forgives you. Simone says she can explain. Let's talk about this. I love you. I'm at the laundry house. Come alone._

Under it, a photo.

Simone holding a shovel over Mae's body in the laundry house. But Mae wasn't tied up anymore. She was standing. Alive. Both of them looking at the camera.

Caption: _We are waiting for you, House One._

It was a trap. They knew I went to the police. They wanted me to bring the police back to the laundry house.

Rollins saw the text. He stood up.

"We have to go. Now. Before they clean the house. Before they move the tunnel."

He grabbed his g*n and his jacket.

"If my mother is there, if Simone is there, we take them tonight."

We ran out of the police station, three of us, barefoot girls and a detective who was hunting his own mother.

Behind us, on Rollins' laptop that he forgot to close, the next video auto-played.

2024-06-14_HOUSE-ONE_EARLY-RETURN.mp4

Scheduled for tomorrow.

The thumbnail was me, in the white ZURI dress, in a white van.

Someone had already filmed my return before I even escaped.