She knew what she was doing. She poked and prodded my naked body that day, even explored inside me briefly. And it wasn’t the last time it happened. Every so often she’d drag me down under duress for a game of Doctor.
Eventually she started putting items inside me. Medicine bottles, a roll of quarters, anything that would fit. I learned to bite my tongue to keep from crying out. I knew if we were caught that the games would get even worse.
It did eventually come to an end, around the time I got my period. After that, Rouge seemed to have lost interest in me.
But it was a rough couple of years.
I never told my parents. Rouge would have had my head.
And now I know she would have had it literally.
I know now that my sister is capable of the most depraved, evil acts imaginable. The stuff she did to me as a kid was awful—truly, it was sexual abuse—but it pales in comparison to the destruction she’s left in her wake since she grew up.
And now she’s abducted two elderly folks—a man and a woman—whom I don’t recognize.
But it’s clear from Harrison’s wide eyes that he does.
“You heinous bitch!” he spits out.
Rouge smirks. “Language, Doctor. You really ought to be acting more professional around two of your patients.”
I gasp. These are two of Harrison’s patients?
“They’ve done nothing wrong!” Harrison replies.
“Have they not, Doctor?” Rouge pulls out a diamond-studded knife, slides it over the old man’s throat. “Within the breast of Lou Chambers beats the heart of the Seven of Spades.” She flicks her gaze toward the woman. “And Carol Lutwidge breathes solely thanks to her lungs.”
It hits me. Carol and Lou. The elderly couple Alissa and Harrison were talking about back at the hospital. Rouge has now confirmed their worst fears—that they live today because of the death of an innocent young woman.
“They didn’t know that!” Harrison’s jaw trembles, but he steadies it. “It’s not their fault. It’s you who are guilty, Rouge. You’ve killed countless innocents, all in the name of profit.”
Rouge narrows her eyes. “In the name of keeping people on the brink of death with us. People you love, Doctor. People that Ms. Maravilla, your beloved nurse, loves.”
“But Alissa also cared about May!” I cry out. “She didn’t want her to die, either!”
Rouge shoots me a glare. “Stay out of this, Bianca. You’re in way over your head.”
“No!” I stamp my foot against the ground, making the lighting fixture about Rouge’s bed shake. “I’m sick of being treated like the little sister, Rouge. I’m a fully grown woman with plenty of life experience.” I take a step forward. “Maybe you were Dad’s favorite, maybe you were the one he saw controlling the clubs, but he never envisioned you doing this. Hurting people! People with nothing to lose, who put their trust in you.”
A smarmy grin crawls across Rouge’s face. “Oh, Bianca. Sweet little naïve Bianca. I’ve only been the official head of Aces for five years now. Sure, I was basically in charge for a decade before that, but do you think all of this”—she brandishes her knife over Lou’s heart—“was my idea?”
I drop my jaw. “Dad was doing this too?”
“Dad, and our grandfather as well.” She chuckles. “Aces has been the front for our black-market dealings ever since Prohibition.” She shrugs. “I just added a new coat of paint and brought in a higher-end clientele. Increased our business dealings exponentially.”
It can’t be. My father, the sweet man who bounced me on his knee, whose shoulder I would cry into when life got too hard. He always preferred Rouge, but he still gave me lots of affection when I was really young, before Rouge started playing Doctor with me. He was doing the same thing my sister was doing, my whole life? All the nice dresses I wore, all the fancy dinners I attended, all the privileges I had due to the Montroses’ wealth and status…
The very job I have now that pays for my lavish apartment in the Loop…
My entire life…
It was built on the deaths of innocent people. Innocent people dragged from the most poverty-stricken corners of the globe with the promise of a better life, all to be mercilessly slaughtered like livestock and dismembered like an old car being stripped for parts.
I think I’m going to be sick.
Rouge clocks this and leans back, the smug smile still on her face. “Like I said, dear. You’re in way over your head. There’s so much you don’t understand about the way this world works. Which reminds me.” She glances toward Chet, who’s been standing behind us silently. “Thank you, Chet, for letting me know your little posse was on its way here. It gave me plenty of time to set the stage, put all our little cast into their positions.”
Harrison, Vanya, and I gasp in unison as we look behind us.
