Filed To Story: The Broken-Hearted She and The Icy He Book PDF Free
Through tears, she’d claimed she had no idea why Jenn would smear her like that. Said she never betrayed anyone.
They’d asked her, too-if she and Jenn and Sharon had all ended up in the same village, why hadn’t she told the police, when they came to rescue her over four years ago, that there were still other girls being held captive?
She said she’d had no freedom at all, was beaten daily, and had no idea there were others. She cried. She apologized. She said if only she had known Jenn and Sharon were there, she would’ve helped.
And they believed her.
They already felt guilty about what she’d endured. Seeing her cry like that, they couldn’t bring themselves to doubt her.
To them, their baby sister was pure-good-hearted. If she ever did something wrong, like setting Lily up, it was because Lily had bullied her terribly in the past, She’d only been retaliating.
They never imagined that the sister they cherished, the one they thought was innocent and kind, would lie… would betray others… would stand by and watch two girls suffer, even when she had the power to help.
The video had been short-but the truth couldn’t have been clearer.
Bodger, Taylor, and Mergan were frozen in stunned silence, their worldviews crumbling in real time.
It was a long while before Bodger could speak, his voice raw and hoarse. “Mathilda… This morning you said you’d never met Jenn or Sharon… Why did you lie? Why did you betray them? Why, when you knew there were other innocent girls in that village… when we came for you, why didn’t you say a word?”
“Why?!”
Bodger had seen the viral story of Charles dying for Sharon too.
He wasn’t heartless. In a world full of shallow affection, that kind of love moved him-left him with a sense of grief and awe.
He’d seen the clips online: Charles holding Sharon’s ashes under the parasol tree, slowly growing cold.
It had hurt to watch.
And he couldn’t help but wonder-what if, back then, they’d searched the village more thoroughly after finding Mathilda? Maybe Sharon could have been saved. Maybe this whole tragedy wouldn’t have happened.
He couldn’t bear the thought that Sharon and Charles’s deaths were caused-however indirectly-by the- very sister he’d always thought was the kindest person he knew.
Maybe… he’d never really known her at all.
Taylor and Mergan looked no better.
They couldn’t wrap their heads around it. Why would Mathilda betray Jenn and Sharon? Why, once she was safe, hadn’t she spoken up?
They both stared at her, waiting for an answer.
“I… I only gave Jenn and Sharon up because I was forced to…”
Mathilda sobbed, gasping for breath between words.
She didn’t want to admit it. She never wanted to admit she’d betrayed anyone. But James’s video had her cornered. There was no denying it now.
Her crying grew louder, more desperate-like she was the victim, more pitiful than Sharon who died, more tragic than anyone else.
“I didn’t mean to… If I didn’t tell them about the escape plan, those monsters would’ve killed me. I just wanted to live…”
“I was scared. I’m not a bad person…”
In the past, the moment Mathilda cried, Bodger and the others would rush to comfort her, believe her without hesitation.
But not this time.
They couldn’t convince themselves anymore.
Even if she had been under threat five years ago, what excuse could she have for staying silent four years ago, when she’d already been rescued?
What possible justification could there be for leaving those girls behind?
And deep down, they had a nagging suspicion-maybe she wasn’t even threatened at all.
Taylor couldn’t help it anymore. He turned toward her, voice shaking. “Mathilda… Lily said you were behind her kidnapping this time. That you worked with traffickers to sell her into the mountains again. Was she telling the truth?”
“Taylor…”
Mathilda’s face turned ghostly pale. Her knees buckled, and she stumbled backward, nearly collapsing.
She grabbed onto the edge of the table for balance, lifting her head with trembling effort, eyes wide in disbelief and overflowing with wounded accusation as she looked at him.
[11
Mathilda couldn’t believe it.
Taylor-her most protective, most trusting brother-was actually questioning whether she had conspired with traffickers to sell Lily.
She was his own sister. How could he even think that?
Had Lily really brainwashed him that badly?
“Mathilda,” Bodger said, his eyes red-rimmed with fury, “tell us the truth. Were you involved or not?”
Mergan didn’t speak, but the way his eyes drilled into her, dark and sharp, left no doubt-he was beyond disappointed. And clearly, he was starting to believe Lily had been telling the truth all along.
“I wasn’t!”
Mathilda’s voice trembled with a mix of panic and humiliation as fat tears rolled down her cheeks.
“I love you all! I know how much you care about Lily-why would I ever hurt her? I was trafficked too! I hate those monsters more than anyone! How could I possibly work with them? I swear, I would never…”
“Ashton,” James said, voice flat and cold, “bring them in.”
Mathilda was still crying, still trying to tug at her brothers’ heartstrings, when James’s command dropped like a hammer.
Seconds later, Ashton and his men dragged in two couples-four people-roughly shoved through the door.
When Mathilda saw their faces, her own blood ran cold.
These were the exact people she’d worked with. They ran stores as a front, stayed low-profile, never flashy. Every time they trafficked thirty women or children, they’d shut down shop and vanish to a new location.
They’d done this for years, without raising a single red flag.
She had never imagined James could actually find them.
Now she was panicking, badly. She slapped a hand over her mouth just to keep from screaming.
Outside the room, Randy-Mathilda’s loyal simp and former scholarship recipient-had been waiting. The moment he saw the traffickers being dragged in, he rushed inside, worried she might get hurt.
The traffickers, for their part, recognized James immediately.
That face-noble, elegant, cold as ice. A face you didn’t mess with.
But they reminded themselves how carefully they’d pulled off Lily’s abduction. Even if she remembered their faces, she had no proof, Her word alone couldn’t touch them.
They weren’t about to admit to anything.
“Mr. James,” one of the men said smoothly, “we’re just humble shopkeepers. We’ve never crossed you- why are we being dragged here like criminals?”
“Exactly,” another chimed in. “We’re law-abiding folks! I’ve lived forty-three years without doing a single wrong thing!”
“You’re the ones!”
Lily’s voice was shaking with rage as she pointed straight at them.
Her palm still stung from hitting Mathilda earlier, but she didn’t care. She grabbed a steel training bar from James and brought it down hard-right on one of the trafficker’s backs.
“Ahhh!”
The man screamed in pain, barely holding himself back from lunging at her.
But James’s eyes locked on him, cold as death, and the Lu family bodyguards stood at the ready. He knew if he moved even an inch, he’d be torn to pieces.
Lily lifted the bar again.
“Besides me, Jenn, and Sharon, how many more have you trafficked?”
She slammed it down again. “Answer me!”
“I… I have no idea what you’re talking about…” the man gasped, gritting his teeth. He forced himself to look harmless, like a confused victim.
“Still playing dumb.”
James shot Ashton a look.
New Book: Returned To Make Them Pay
On her wedding anniversary, Alicia is drugged and stumbles into the wrong room—straight into the arms of the powerful Caden Ward, a man rumored never to touch women. Their night of passion shocks even him, especially when he discovers she’s still a virgin after two years of marriage to Joshua Yates.