Stolen Innocence

25- Will you ever change?

Ruben started the story... "We were all looking for Abby because we knew she couldn't have gotten too far because of the electric fence we put up around the house property. When we found her, she was already dead. Curtis appeared upset and threatened to kill our girls if he couldn't have the one he wanted. Despite the fact that we did nothing wrong..."

"I tried to reason with him! But he wasn't listening to me regardless of what I was saying. Eventually, he pulled out a gun, and when he pointed it at my face, I was terrified. But I wasn't scared about what was going to happen to me, I was scared about what would happen to you!" Jesse said.

I was a little surprised... he sounded like he was speaking the truth to me. "What? Why?" I asked.

"I knew if anything happened to me, he could do something very bad to you. I didn't want something bad to happen to you, as you were locked in our room without any food. If he had chosen to leave you alone, you would have wasted away. At that moment, I told him how sorry I was that Abby was gone. I was sorry for what had happened. I never thought the fence could kill anyone, I always assumed that if you guys ever came close to the fence you would give up on running away. You know much like you did when you approached it that day you tried running away from me the first time when I caught up to you." he spoke softly as he took small steps forward, before stopping as I threw up my hands and stopped him from coming any closer. I begged him with my eyes for him to continue with the story he was telling. "I never wanted any of you girls to get hurt, nothing like that. I knew he was aware of that. So when I said I"d be willing to do it again ..."

"Yeah, Jesse told Curtis that he'd grab another girl just for him. That he'd have the PI keep looking for Stephanie, even though we all agreed to just three girls in total." Ruben spoke softly, drawing my attention off of Jesse.

"Who's Stephanie?" I ask them.

"Stephanie was Curtis's first choice, Abby was his second choice!" Jesse says.

"What?"

"Okay so before this all started, Jesse asked us both for three names, but I could only come up with two, while Curtis was able to come up with all three." Ruben continued, winking at me.

"Yeah, and I was not going to let you get your second choice girl!" Jesse raises his voice at Ruben, sending a smirk in his direction.

"Why?"

"Because my second choice was you, Makena," he says with a smile.

"What?" I was surprised he just admitted that to me.

"Anyway, let's move on! " Ruben muttered as he scratched his head.

"It was then that he turned the gun on himself, saying that he didn't want to do it again. He didn't want to do it to another girl! He pulled the trigger, right then right in front of us. The last thing I remember is his body falling to the ground, Makena, I swear to you on your life that I had nothing to do with his death! I swear it on my own life, I know the police will figure it out." Jesse says repeatedly, his eyes pleading at me. I found myself wanting to believe everything he was telling me.

"Yeah the cops will figure it out, they will realize that he ended his own life." Ruben says through a wide grin.

"The only reason they say it's suspicious circumstances is because there are two bodies." Jesse stared at me while he spoke as if he was begging me to believe him. I wanted to believe him. I wanted to believe him, I really did. But I was just so scared about everything that was happening. I could feel tears in my eyes as I looked at both of these two guys standing before me.

"Well, I have to go and tell Sarah about the news report before she watches it too. I don't want her to hate me for another thing." Ruben said as he turned and walked toward the door.