Chapter 287 - Their Hell (1/2)

The flickering overhead fluorescent lighting of the hospital conference room set Gigi's nerves on edge. Her eyes kept moving to the monitor in the corner. {Was Russ watching from another room? Ha, what's the point in worried whether he is or not... at this point there's no changing his mind about me... nor mine about him...} Her breath caught as the door to the room opened. Lamia trailed nervously behind an ethereally beautiful woman. She recognized the goddess from the trials she'd seen weeks earlier... Themis... Goddess of truth and justice... {Shit...}

Themis studied the girl across the table as she lowered into her seat. She flipped through the file Lamia spread out onto the table in front of her. She arched a brow as she moved her gaze back to the wolf girl finally. ”Gigi, yes?”

Gigi nodded her head as she mumbled. ”Yeah...”

”Public records show you were orphaned during the attack to this island... sixteen years ago now... And you were adopted by the Niels family roughly four years after that.” Themis lowered the papers as she moved her attention to Gigi. ”Would you please describe in detail those four years between for us? Note, this is an active investigation, and your testimony here tonight will be considered evidence. Any untruths, omissions, or phrasings that could be seen as distractions from the truth will not be excepted and could result in actions against you, not excluding imprisonment. Do you understand?”

Gigi could feel a tremble begin to rattle through her hands. Clinching the arms of her chair she nodded. ”Yes... I understand.”

”Good, then you may begin,” Themis ordered gently.

”I... I... can't recall all the details. I was only four at the time... some of the memories I do have are strained. I can only imagine it was my mind trying to protect me...” Gigi babbled.

”That is fine, tell us what you do recall.” Themis pushed on.

Gigi swallowed hard. ”My family and I had been visiting the palace the week leading up to the attack.” Her eyes moved to the monitor in the corner. ”My parents had been working out marriage arrangements between me and the prince...” She swallowed against the build of emotions as the next events came to mind. ”After the attack, I had to identify the remains of my parents and baby brother... I... I don't remember all the details after that... Some men found me wandering the foreign streets, I recognized their palace uniforms, so, I didn't fight against them... Instead, I let them take me back to the palace... that... that was when I was tossed into the dungeon for the first time...” She could feel the tears stream down her face as the emotions of that night began to creep into her very marrow. Images she'd fought for years to forget began to seep into her brain. ”There were already several others in there by the time I was tossed in... along... along with...” She swallowed hard again as her words threatened to choke her. ”Bodies...”

”Please continue, dear. How is it you were released?” Themis asked trying to shift the girl's attention away from the horrors that were obviously haunting her.

Gigi gripped the arms of the chair tighter as her mind moved forward to the years that followed. ”It was hell in that room... we were kept in complete darkness with little water and often spoiled food... Our only solace came when... when...” Tears flooded her eyes.

”Yes? Please continue, dear.” Themis coached.

”When the men came...” Tears ran down her face in heavy streams. A sick twisted smile curved her face. ”We would be brought to nice rooms upstairs in the uppermost floors of the palace. Maids would be sent into wash our bodies and dress us in beautiful lacy things. Meals would be delivered, and we were allowed to eat as much as we wanted...” Her smile began to fade. ”But then the men would come in and do all sorts of things to us... vial things...” She shook her head. ”It wasn't until Fern recognized who I was that I was pulled from the dungeons and the sėx work... I had thought myself to be so lucky to have won his favor... How wrong I'd been... It wasn't until he'd completely broken me, and I'd become boring to him that he devised the plan to send me to America to spy on Russ...” Her attention moved to the monitor again. ”I hadn't wanted to... I'd hoped that my new adoptive parents would be understanding and caring... but all they were concerned about was the money Fern sent for my care... When they weren't abusing me, they were completely ignoring me... and I grew to prefer their neglect. It took them five years to track down Russ's actual location and me another year to blackmail him into a relationship as I'd been ordered to do...”

Themis tilted her head. ”If you recognized it was blackmail you were being asked to carry out, why do it?”

Gigi frowned. ”Because as long as I was directly involved with the prince, my adoptive parents would stay off my back, and Fern would praise us and send extra treats...” She sent the monitor a sad, pleading glance. ”I'd hoped that he would see the blackmail for what it was and someday rescue me from it all... that what we had could really become something... but I was wrong... so wrong...”

Themis nodded. ”That's enough for now. We will bring in some of the other able-bodied girls. Stay close, if we have more questions, we may need to bring you back in.”

Gigi frowned, her watery eyes blurring her vision. ”What will happen to me now?” The words came out on a tremble.

”I'm not sure, child... That will all depend on the other testimonies and the decision of your councilmen and pack leaders.” Themis replied stoically.

She nodded and made her way to the door, sending the monitor one last glance. {If Russ is given the final say on my fate... what would he choose?}

”Did you know?” Giorgos's words were a low whisper as he watched Gigi fade from the frame.

Russ shrugged, feeling two other sets of eyes on him, waiting for the answer. ”The details... no... Her goals for blackmailing me... yes... I knew it wasn't me she really wanted, and it was obvious enough with her sėxuȧŀ... tastes that she'd been through some shit... but I would have never imagined any of this, probably wouldn't have believed it until seeing that room tonight...”

Giorgos nodded. ”Me either... but still...” His words were cut off as another girl walked into view of the cameras.

Themis glanced over the new file pushed in front of her as a new girl sat down across the table. ”Jaden Hunt, your disappearance fell into conjunction with a string of kidnappings reported to the council approximately 3 years ago. What can you tell us about this?”

Jaden's cold eyes studied Themis and Lamia for several long moments before she finally answered. ”There isn't much I can tell you about my sister and I's initial abduction, except that it happened in the middle of the night, and we woke on a ship with several other girls... most of the ones you found tonight.”

”What can you tell us about the ship?” Themis asked, still flipping through the folder.

”I was one of the oldest of the girls. We were all from nearby areas... It was a short trip. We were unloaded and led through caves into the cellars...” Her stoic voice sent chills down Russ's spine as he listened. ”Some of us were chained to the walls others were not...”

”What determined who was chained and who wasn't?” Themis asked.

A wicked glint lit the girl's Jade eyes. ”Those who fought we chained...”

”And you were one of those who fought against your captures?” Themis pushed.