Willow’s Secret (A Sequel to Willow’s Tale)
Willow’s Secret
A sequel to Willow’s Tale. Willow has been keeping a secret since escaping slavery. She has a chance for a normal life, but will her haunting nightmares kill the dream?
Excerpt:
“I’m not ashamed of what happened in the camp, it’s what happened before I got there.”
Emma watched her, waiting. “Are you going to elaborate?”
Reluctantly, Willow told her of the choice she was given and who she had chosen, but told her nothing of what had taken place in the shadows.
“Jake?” she asked surprised. “But he wasn’t even in the mating rotation! I always did wonder why,” she pondered.
“So did I, so I asked Sylvie. Apparently, before they started hunting for us, they stumbled upon a girl backpacking in the mountains.”
Willow went on to explain how they took the girl and forced her into the mating rotation with the female gang members. She ended up falling in love with Jake and reacted quite badly to him pushing her off to the next man on the list when their time was up, causing her to run away.
“She’s why they came up with the metal cages for our legs,” Willow concluded, referring to the contraption they were forced to wear that allowed mobility but hindered escape.
“So he became celibate because of her?”
Willow shook her head. “Sylvie said he shared a bed with some of the girls of the gang from time to time, but never a captive again.”
Emma sat mulling this over. “Okay, very odd, but then he was an odd guy.”
“To put it mildly,” Willow responded, rolling her eyes.
“But that still doesn’t explain why you’re ashamed. He may think he offered you a choice, but you still didn’t have one.”
Willow retrieved her rag from the pail and turned back to the windows. “There was a choice, I just made the wrong one.”
Author’s Note:
Willow's Secret is the sequel to Willow's Tale. The original idea for this story was to have her brother, Asher, be the star. I even had the working title: Asher's Promise. Asher did end up keeping his promise, but Willow gobsmacked me with a secret that outshined her brother's story. Sibling rivalry, am I right?
Also found in Grim Secrets: Tales of Murder, Manipulation, and Loss.
