Andre drove Jade to the West residence and she looked at it surprised, it was a huge house. "You live here?" She asked.
"Yeah" He lied.
"And you don't mind your family seeing you with a…prostitute?" Jade asked and he shook his head while shrugging.
"I'm old enough to make my own choices" He responded and they got out of the car.
"I can see that" Jade said and smiled as he opened the door, she walked inside and he locked it behind her back. "I usually don't go to people's houses, they keep me hidden in hotels or their cars"
"I don't want to hide you" Andre said and she took a breath as she looked around but Beck and Mr. Oliver suddenly appeared so she stepped back shocked.
"What is this?" Jade asked Andre upset. "You know these people?"
"Jade, listen to us" He responded and she shook her head as she stepped back.
"Stay away from me" Jade said to them and tried to open the door but it was locked. "Let me go, please…" she begged and they looked at each other.
"You won't leave this house again" Mr. West said and she stared at him terrified.
"Please don't hurt me, please" Jade said scared and they shook their heads.
"No, we are not gonna hurt you" Beck responded.
"Jade!" A female voice suddenly said and Jade saw a short red haired girl running to her. "I've missed you" Cat said as she hugged her but Jade pushed her back.
"Who are you? Who are all of you?" She asked confused.
"We told you" Beck said and she shook her head.
"I don't know any of you and my name isn't Jade, it's Annabelle, how many times do I need to say it?" Jade asked angrily. "I wanna go right now, I wanna go home"
"You are Jade West, my daughter and this is your home" Mr. West affirmed. "Come on, I'll show you…" He said and she looked at him nervously.
"It's okay, we won't hurt you…we want you to see the truth, the last time we met we didn't have proofs but now we do so please see them" Beck said and Jade sighed, she had no options so she simply started walking towards them and they led her to the living room, which was huge and really elegant. The sofas were dark brown and the walls were white.
"Look, this is you when you were three years old" Her father said and showed her a portrait of a little brunette girl. "And this is you when you were twelve, that's your mother and that's me" He said and showed her another photograph. Jade couldn't believe what she was seeing, it really did look like her.
"See? We are not lying" Tori said and Jade kept looking at all the photos. There were many portraits of her in the living room so she didn't know what to say. The last one was more recent and it was a picture of Jade and her father, obviously planned and taken professionally because she looked very poised and so did he.
"This is me?" Jade asked as she looked at the picture and his father nodded.
"We took that a year ago, it was part of a shooting for the magazine when I won my big case" He informed her and she smiled a little as she stroked it, the girl in the photo was someone she saw with admiration, she looked like the women Jade always saw in magazines. She stared at the picture and got lost in her thoughts, Jade, that was the perfect woman she sometimes aspired to be but the reality always slapped her in the face when she looked in the mirror of her room in Venezuela, only to see a short cheap dress and too much makeup. Nothing like her dream, nothing like woman of the portrait.
"There's more from that day, you insisted that they made a portfolio for your acting career and I loved this one so I put it here too" Mr. West said as he grabbed another portrait from the little table next to the sofa, he handed it to her and she couldn't help to smile when she saw it. She looked so beautiful, so elegant and so confident in the photo that Jade couldn't believe that was her, she looked at it and thought that the woman in the picture was stunning but she couldn't recognize herself.
"Is this me?" Jade asked surprised and they nodded.
"Yes, it is…This is you, Jade" Tori affirmed.
"But come on, there's more…let's go to your room" Mr. West said and they all followed him upstairs.
Mr. West opened a black door on the hall and turned on the lights, there was a huge bed with a black and white bedding, a black leather sofa, paintings on the wall, a piano, a desk with a computer and some notebooks, a jacket hanging on the chair and a bureau with some makeup and a laptop on it, it also had a mirror and there were some pictures on it.
Jade walked towards the bureau and looked at the pictures on the mirror, there was a picture of her and her mother, a beautiful woman who looked a lot like her but with blond hair. Another picture showed her with Cat, Tori, Andre, Robbie, Beck and Sikowitz, they were posing with blue uniforms in front of a school van and there was also a picture of her with Beck, he was hugging her and she was smiling happily, she stroked it and turned to Beck so he smiled.
"Nothing was a lie" He affirmed and she looked down.
"This is your closet" Her father said and opened a door so she walked inside and saw lots of different clothes.
"Can I?" Jade asked referring to if she could touch them and he smiled.
"Of course darling, it's yours" He said and she smiled a little. She closed the door and put on a pair of black jeans, boots, a gray shirt and a jacket. She walked out in different clothes and they smiled, they missed seeing her like that.
Jade walked towards the mirror and looked at herself in it, she felt the same way she'd felt back in her first day in Venezuela, when she'd had to put on the red shiny dress. Only that this time, she didn't feel strange or ashamed of her life, it felt good. "This…this is me" Jade said as she saw herself and smiled with tears in her eyes.
"It is you, Jade West" Her father said and stood behind her. "Look at you, my darling, this is the real you"
"Yeah…" Jade said overwhelmed with emotion, she was just smiling with tears in her eyes and the gang was staring at her happily. A few seconds later she simply looked down and sat down on the sofa in front of her bed, she stared into space for a few seconds and then started crying.
They looked at each other not knowing what to do and Mr. West sighed sadly, he felt so impotent to see his child in so much pain without being able to make her feel better. "What's the matter, Jade?" Tori asked.
"Jade…That's the matter" Jade said upset and took a breath. "I have been living a lie! Sometimes I felt I remembered things and I thought, oh this is it…this is my life and I have to like it but no, I didn't…it wasn't my life and yet I HAD TO LIVE IT!" She screamed and covered her head as she cried her eyes out.
"Honey…" Her father said and tried to touch her but she pushed his hand away.
"Honey, he calls me honey…" Jade said and laughed while shaking her head. "Honey, you must do what you're told or you'll get punished, honey I love you and you love me and you agreed to this, honey I'm all you have…honey, Annabelle, Anns, baby, sweetie…" She said, rage and frustration dripping from her voice.
"Jade" Cat said sadly.
"Get on your knees, this is just part of our life…" She continued as she took her belt off and they looked at her confused. "You leave me no choice" Jade said and started hitting the sofa. "THIS IS WHAT YOU GET FOR DISOBEYING ME" She screamed as she whipped the sofa and then collapsed on her knees crying. "And then I rape you, because I can…and because I love you" she said, it was clear she was just remembering so they were heartbroken.
"He can't hurt you anymore" Beck affirmed and she turned to him coldly.
"He doesn't need to, I do it myself" Jade said and took a small breath. "I…I go around with those men, I let them use me, I let them hit me, I do it all myself and then I give him the money, I tell him how much I love him and go to bed, he slaps me when I don't make enough and I still tell him that I love him, he abuses me and I let him, I…I did this to myself"
"No" Her father affirmed and she nodded.
"Yes, I am a prostitute…do you know what that means? I sleep with people for money, I…I sleep wi…" Jade said as she cried her eyes out and couldn't keep going so she covered her face ashamedly. "Oh god, how could he do this to me? How could he lie? He said he loved me!"
"He took advantage of your vulnerability, it's not your fault…You were forced to do it, Jade, you need to understand that" Her father affirmed and grabbed her shoulders to help her stand up but she was too ashamed to face him.
"I'm sorry" Jade said and Mr. West felt his heart crashing. "I'm so sorry"
"No, no, honey no" He said as he embraced her in his arms and kissed her head with lots of tears running down his face. "You are innocent, he is the one to blame, the bastard who lied to you and abused you all this time" He affirmed as he held her tightly.
Jade broke the hug after a while and simply wiped the tears off her face, she looked at her friends and they smiled at her but she could see the compassion in their eyes so she sighed. "Are you feeling better?" Beck asked and she nodded a little.
"What are you doing here?" Jade asked and he looked at her confused.
"Ummm…we, you are my girlfriend, remember?" Beck said.
"I know, I saw the pictures…Now I understand why you were all creepy in the restaurant" She responded and giggled a little. "But why are you still here? You've done your part, I know the truth now"
"What do you mean?" He questioned confused.
"You know exactly what I mean, why are you still here? You know everything, you know what my life has been like for months" Jade commented sadly and he shook his head. "Annabelle, remember?"
"Jade, I love you and nothing can change that" Beck responded.
"Dozens of men on top of me can, I'm sure" Jade said and her father closed his eyes perturbed. "I don't know you but I'm sure you can't deal with that, Alex didn't lie about this…'No man in his right mind would love a woman like you, Anns, just me'" she quoted and sighed.
"I agree, you don't know me if you think I would leave you for what happened" Beck said. "I won't pressure you into anything because I know you don't remember me but I won't leave you because of the abuse you went through, I'm here for you"
"I don't believe you" Jade said sincerely and shrugged sadly. "You don't understand it now but you will and you'll leave, I know it'll happen" she affirmed and he shook his head. "Hey don't worry, I'm not recriminating you…That doesn't make you bad, it makes you human and I understand"
I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter!
I know you must be thinking this is gonna be over soon but you are WRONG! There's a lot coming, things aren't so simple ;)
As with everything, it'll be a process and you MAY be a little surprised.
PLEASE REVIEW!