Betrayed, but New Love Found

Keeping Secrets

TW Mention of SA

Angie

Angie walked beside Holly as she videoed the town, and introduced her. Angie thought Holly’s VidTube channel was awesome. They went into many shops and waved at people that waved at them. She couldn’t believe her luck in meeting Holly. She didn’t tell Holly the truth as to why she was homeless. Yeah, she did turn eighteen while in the foster system, and she might have been kicked out if it wasn’t for the husband of the family she was staying with.

He convinced his wife that when the girls in the house turned eighteen to let them stay. They could help around the house, get a job and help them with bills. They could watch the other girls while the adults went out. She ate it up. What she didn’t know was that for the last few years he had been sneaking into her and the other girls' rooms and slipping into their beds. Making them touch him, while he touched them.

None of them were virgins anymore because of him. He told them to be good little girls, and he would always make sure they had a place to stay and food in their bellies. Ann Marie had turned eighteen first. She split the moment she could. She broke into Arden’s office and stole all of our records. Ann Marie gave them to Jayla, Heather and her. Then she split without a backward glance. When Arden and Maureen woke up and saw that Ann Marie was missing, they locked her and the girls up for a month. Especially when they found all the records gone. They had tossed the girls' room but didn’t find them. All the girls had sworn up and down, they didn’t know anything about the records or of where or what time Ann Marie left and, since they didn’t find anything, they believed the girls.

She and the girls were only allowed to go to school and that was it. They had no freedom for a month.

The girls hid the records in the air conditioner vent. They had all been seventeen at the time. Months away from all their birthdays. Their birthdays were days apart. If they ran now, Arden could call the police, but once they were all eighteen, they could leave and Arden wouldn’t be able to report them. Angie was turning eighteen next. Arden and Maureen watched all of them like hawks. But when they slept, Angie picked the lock on the bedroom door and snuck out. She would creep into Arden’s office where she knew he kept bundles of cash, because he didn’t trust banks. He had a loose floor board under his desk. He didn’t know that she watched him once as he stashed cash there through a crack in the door. Angie took enough money for all of them to last a week. She told them after they ran they would have to figure out how to get more money.

Angie turned eighteen and then waited for Jayla and Heather to turn. She endured Arden’s touch and so did Jayla until Heather had finally turned eighteen. When Arden came into the room that night to give Heather her “birthday present,” they all waited until he was done. Once an hour passed, and they figured he was asleep back in his room. They split.

They had decided not to go the same way. Jayla pointed out if they were all walking and hitching together it would be easier to catch them, so they all went separate ways. Angie went east for a while and then journeyed north until she ran out of money and had to start begging. She hitched rides where she could and hated it most of the time.

Angie wasn’t as good and sweet as Holly thought. She hitchhiked with some truckers, and for payment gave them blow jobs and f*cked a few. Some of them even fed her. She had just left a trucker before she met Holly.

It was a relief when Holly approached her with this offer. At first, she was a little wary, but after talking to her, she found that she really liked Holly. Holly trusted her and was giving her an opportunity to make something of herself, to help her with this house in Montana. She could learn how to cook and mend her clothes. Holly said she needed the help and even offered to give her a little money every week. Angie couldn’t pass that up. So now here she was, enjoying freedom for the first time with a woman who was hurt by a man she had loved. Who was starting over just like her.

“Look at this necklace, Angie, I think it would look good on you. It’ll make your blue eyes pop even more than they do.”

“No, I couldn’t take that,” she said.

“I insist. Please, a gift for being my new friend.”

“Okay, thank you.”

She held the necklace up to her neck and looked in the tiny mirror where the necklace had been hanging from. She smiled. The beads on the necklace were different colors of blue that had a big blue stone hanging in the middle. It really did make her eyes pop. Holly had taken the tag off of it and helped her put it on.

They bought a few shirts and long flowing skirts. Angie embarrassingly told Holly she had no clean underwear. So they walked back to the truck, hopped in and went to a big box store, where Holly bought her a couple packages of underwear and three new bras.

Angie wanted to cry, this woman was so sweet. They found a Holiday Inn Express and Holly got a room with two queen beds. Angie asked if she could take a shower first since it had been a while and Holly nodded.

Holly had also bought some disposable razors and Ange took one to the bathroom with her. She saw that the shower had shampoo, conditioner and body wash in it and smiled. She wouldn’t have to use her stuff at all.

She showered and shaved and felt a million bucks better when she put her new underwear on and a sleep set that Holly gave her from her own bag.

“Feel better?” Holly asked.

“Yes, thank you.”

After Holly’s shower, they went to bed early because they had an early start the next day.

Hours later, they stopped at another small town in Kansas. They had fun looking around and picking more things out. Angie had to ask Holly to buy another backpack for her so she could fit all her new clothes in it. Holly did one better and bought her a brand-new suitcase. Angie did cry then. Holly hugged her until she was finished.

Holly couldn’t help herself and bought some local art too. A painting of an old cabin with a rocking chair out front with faded wheat fields behind it and a faded man on a horse. She said it caught her eyes and she just knew she had to have it.

That night they rolled into Denver, Colorado. Both of them were exhausted and tired of being in the truck. Holly had decided they could take some time and explore. She took out her phone and started videoing them and Denver.

“It smells like California here,” Angie said.

“I wouldn’t know. I’ve never been. What’s the smell?”

“Like pot,” Angie teased. “Or at least where I lived.”

Holly laughed and then nodded.

“You’re right, it does.”

They ate at an Italian place called Gaetano’s. It had a mobster themed vibe, Angie thought it was really cool. An older gentleman dressed in a black suit with a black shirt underneath and a red tie came and sat at their table. He talked in an Italian accent and asked what two beautiful women, such as themselves, were doing eating all alone.

Holly giggled. “Is this some sort of show with dinner?”

The man looked at her confused.

“I think he’s asking legitimately,” Angie said. The man nodded.

Holly played along and said they were on an adventure, they were running from their abusive brother who wanted to sell them to the highest bidder.

The man looked shocked and then he got angry.

“I will kill him. Tell me his name, I’ll make sure you are never bothered again. That way you won’t be looking over your shoulder all the time.”

Holly shook her head.

“I can't. He is really dangerous. If something happened to you, I’d feel horrible. No, it’s best you stay safe and keep that handsome face from being ruined.”

Angie gawked at Holly. The man smirked at them both.

“Dinner is on me. You two should be pampered.” He then got up and they both watched him go to a table where other distinguished-looking men were sitting. They all looked at them and raised their glasses, so Holly and Angie raised theirs back.

“Holly, I think that’s a table full of actual people in the mob,” Angie said as they ate their food.

“No, I’m sure they’re all actors. This place is pretty authentic.”

Angie looked at the table of men again. The one that came over to the table was watching Holly. Angie had seen that look before. It was full of lust. His eyes tracked over to her, and he winked, then went back to eating his food.

“I think we should eat fast and get out of here.”

“But they have tiramisu,” Holly said.

“Can we get it to go?”

Holly nodded. When Holly asked for the bill, their waitress said it was already taken care of. Holly was shocked and asked who bought them dinner.

“Mr. Angelo. He and his friends come in every Wednesday for their meetings. I’ve never seen him approach someone else's table before. You must have really intrigued him.”

Holly looked at Angie with wide eyes. The men had left ten minutes ago, and they thought nothing of it.

“Holy sh*t Angie. I think you’re right.”

She nodded, then they both burst into laughter.

“You told him we were running from our abusive brother who wanted to sell us, and he wanted a name so he could kill him.”

“Oh my God. Thank God I didn’t give him Kyle’s name. I thought about it, but I just didn’t.”

They were still laughing when they walked back to the truck. Both of them never saw the car sitting there or the man that watched them get into the truck. The car followed and saw where they were staying. He called the hotel. It was his. He told them that the two women that were about to walk into the hotel were to be accommodated with whatever they wanted free of charge and to give them a spa package. He also wanted room service to be sent to them at eight sharp. They can check out whenever they want. When he got off the phone, he told his driver to take him home. He had never seen two such pure souls. They deserved some luck in their life. He wished he had gotten the name of the brother.