Denzel
Janet's family and I waited in this private room for any news. Gil had to go get Tommy and Joey to tell them what happened so they could be here. Joey was bringing Eissa with him and told me that Eissa has not stopped crying for hours. It's not surprising why.
I sat in silence as her family talked and discussed what happened. "Forty years!" Jermaine said. "Y'all kept this from the family for forty years!"
"We had to. Janet would've left. We probably would've never seen her again. We had to get her to stay." said Rebbie.
"But you could've told us after. We could've gotten this guy. Now he's off somewhere and has probably lived a great life after molesting my sister for two years."
"She's our sister too."
"Really? Are you sure about that? Because if she was, you would've said something." said Randy.
"How many times do we have to tell you? Janet would've denied everything. She said that herself." said LaToya. "The family already looks crazy enough because of me, I didn't want her thrown in."
"But she's our sister!" Marlon stood up. "Who cares what these random people think. She's our baby sister. We all promised to protect her no matter what and looks what's happened to her."
"Then we should all be shamed, not just and LaToya." said Jackie.
"What do you mean?" asked Jermaine.
"Let's not act like we all don't know something that happened to Janet and didn't share it. She's more than likely sworn all of us to secrecy."
"Why do you say that?" He sighed.
"Because I know that isn't the only time she was raped."
"What?!"
"Yeah. Rene raped her and I found out. I was going to tell but she said that he had changed and gotten help. Then she married him and just like with Rebbie and LaToya, she said she'd deny it and what has she been doing all of these years since their divorce?"
"She's denied that." said Marlon.
"Exactly. See I'm sure we all have a part to play in the fact that she's here right now. We should all feel guilty except for mother and Denzel. This is our fault." They all sat in silence.
"No. This ain't your fault." said Mama Kat. "You were doing what you thought was best for your baby sister who was probably keeping all these secrets because she didn't want to hurt me or someone else. The guilty parties are the people who hurt my baby and are living their lives with no guilt about it. That's who's to blame."
"But this could've been avoided if we talked and stopped keeping secrets."
"True, but you can't blame yourself because Janet didn't know how to process these types of things. That's on me. I didn't give her the correct emotional tools. I was blinded by anger towards your father that Janet slipped through the cracks. That's on me. But even still I can't sit here and pour over that, because that doesn't help. It doesn't help her, it doesn't help Eissa, and it doesn't help us."
"But she's going to hate us." said LaToya.
"No she's not." I spoke up.
"How do you know?"
"Because I have a part to play in this too. I knew she was getting to this point but I just didn't want to see it. But even then, she would talk. She had these moments where she would just start talking and I knew she didn't realize it. Never once did she express any anger towards you guys. She loves you guys, that's probably why she hung on so long. She didn't want you guys to have to go through this pain. That's why she did this at the old house."
