The police arrived in the West residence to take real Jade's testimony and file charges against the girl they'd had in the house, whose real identity was unknown to everyone. The gang had to come as well because they needed to tell the police everything they knew, but they were more confused than everyone else.
"Do you know where she is or where she could be?" The detective in charge of the investigation asked and the gang looked at each other.
"No, we are her only friends and she only ever hangs out with us or she stays home" Cat commented.
"This isn't her home" The real Jade said.
"Jade has always lived here, ever since we've known her" Tori responded "I don't understand what's happening"
"Stop calling her Jade, that's my name, not hers" She said upset.
"Honey, it's okay, we know it's you now" Mr. West said.
"You know what? Just call me Diana, that's my real name at this point and it will just make me feel better" Diana said and Jade's friends looked at her awkwardly, that girl seemed nice but she was pissed and they just couldn't see her as Jade, they felt they were looking at the impersonator. It was so bizarre.
"That's okay, my love, anything you need" Evelyn said and hugged her.
"Where is that impostor? I want her in prison where she belongs" Mr. West said upset and the detectives looked at each other.
"We understand how you feel and we will find her" The male cop said.
"How could this happen?" Evelyn asked "I don't understand, I was so sure it was her…I mean, she'd changed but it'd been six years and the tattoo and…"
"She knew a lot about us, how?" Mr. West asked the cops.
"She probably found all the information online, you talked a lot about your daughter on the blog you opened to find leads" The female detective, whose name was Anna, said.
"Yes, because I wanted to find my baby, not some deluded girl trying to cash on our pain" Evelyn said and Anna sighed.
"Listen, I know you must be angry with her right now and you have every reason to be, but not everything she said was a lie" Anna said.
"What do you mean?" Mr. West asked.
"The hospital records when she came to you revealed a severe lack of vitamin D in her body, which is consistent with her story, she said she'd spent years locked up in a basement" The male cop, whose name was Alex, said.
"So what? Maybe she just didn't go out a lot, she is a liar" Diana said.
"No, honey, that's not the case, no one gets that sick for not going out in a couple of months, she was away from the sun for years" Anna said "She was also abused, the hospital did a rape kit and she was telling the truth" she commented and the gang looked at each other mortified and confused, they had no idea what they were talking about.
"How can we be sure the sex wasn't consensual?" Diana asked and the detectives looked at each other.
"She was fifteen at the time, the hospital records show she'd been sexually active for a long time and she was kid so it couldn't have been consensual, if we take that and the lack of vitamin D into account, her story clicks, someone had her captive and abused her for years" Alex commented and Beck closed his eyes in frustration, he knew the girl they were talking about was his girlfriend and it was shocking for him to believe everything they were saying.
"What are you trying to say?" Evelyn asked.
"We are not trying to say anything, just laying out the facts" Anna responded.
"She said she was our daughter, we stopped looking for our Jade because of her lies" Mr. West responded coldly.
"And that was wrong, and you have every right to file charges, I'm just saying…not everything she said was a lie" Anna said and they looked at each other.
"So now what?" Evelyn asked.
"Now we need to find her, she couldn't have gone far" Alex said.
"I think we need to get going" Beck said and the gang stood up as well.
"If she comes into contact with you, please call me" Anna said as she gave them all a card and they nodded.
"Good night" Tori said and they all left the house, Beck drove everyone to Tori's house and they sat down in the living room in silence. They still hadn't processed all the new information they had.
"Okay, so Jade is not Jade, right? She lied to us all along" Robbie said.
"She lied to everyone, apparently" Andre said and Beck sighed.
"This isn't right, Jade is real, we know her" He said.
"I mean, we do know someone but that's not her name, right?" Tori asked "This is so confusing"
"It doesn't matter, we need to find her, she is out there and she is all alone" Beck said.
"That's not gonna be necessary" Andre said.
"What?" Beck asked confused and Andre pointed at the door behind him, so they all turned around and saw Jade standing there.
"Hey…" Jade said nervously as she held her arm, she felt so strange and awkward.
"Jade, thank god you're okay" Beck immediately said and hugged her, so she stood there awkwardly, she did not expect that reaction from him "I was so worried, why didn't you call earlier? I didn't know where you were or if you were okay" He commented.
"You're not upset?" Jade asked confused.
"I'm confused" Beck admitted "We all are, would you care to explain what happened today?" He asked and she looked down.
"I'm sorry I lied to you" She responded sincerely.
"Who are you?" Tori asked and Jade stared at them trying to stay calm, but she felt really overwhelmed, it'd been a horrible day for her.
"Hey, it's okay…we are here for you" Beck said sweetly because he could see she was really scared, he'd never seen her like that.
"Yes, we are your friends, regardless of what happened" Tori said nicely.
"What's your real name?" Andre asked and a couple of tears streamed down her cheeks.
"I don't know" She said and they looked at each other confused.
"What do you mean you don't know?" Beck questioned and she looked at him mortified as more tears streamed down her cheeks "Who are you? For real, you can tell us"
"I-" She started and took a breath to calm down a little "I can't"
"What? Why not?" Tori asked even more confused.
"Because I can't go back" Jade said scared and they looked at each other confused, but they had some idea after hearing what the cops had said.
"What's your name?" Beck asked again.
"I already told you, I don't know, I never had a name…I didn't need it" She responded and they looked at each other, they didn't understand her.
"You're not making any sense" Beck said.
"This was a mistake" Jade responded as she stepped back and tried to open the door, but Beck stopped her.
"No, wait, you can't leave" Beck said.
"I can't go back" Jade said scared.
"Back where? Please talk to us" Beck demanded.
"Why don't you sit down? I'll make some coffee" Tori said and Jade sighed.
"Come on, please…." Beck said and held her hand to make her walk to the living room, so she did and she took a seat. Tori came back with coffee for everyone and Jade took a sip of hers.
"Is that good?" Tori asked Jade nicely and she nodded, but she knew what came next, she had to talk.
"Okay, why don't you start from the beginning? Where are you from?" Beck asked and she sighed.
"The room" Jade said and they looked at each other confused.
"What room?" Cat questioned.
"The grey room" She responded and looked at their disconcerted faces "I grew up in that room, I can't remember anything before that, but I guess I was born in this city, if that's what you're asking"
"Okay, so…you lived there alone?" Beck asked and she looked down.
"Hey, it's okay, you can trust us…we won't tell anyone" Tori said nicely and Jade took a breath.
"No, I wasn't alone" She responded "I lived there with my dad, well, he lived in the house and I lived in the room"
"So, he never let you out of the room?" Andre asked.
"Not until I turned fourteen" Jade said.
"If you didn't have a name, what did he call you?" Robbie asked.
"Girl" She responded and they looked at each other sadly, they'd heard some of her story from the police but they wanted to know everything, they wanted to understand.
"Jade, what did he do to you? Why did he keep you there?" Beck asked as he held her hand and she closed her eyes in pain as she remembered.
"I don't want to talk about it" Jade said and they looked at each other.
"It's okay, no pressure…" Tori said and she sighed.
"He hurt you, didn't he?" Beck asked and she kept staring into space, she couldn't look at anyone's face in those moments. She felt so vulnerable, she just wanted to cry but she wouldn't allow herself to and they could see it.
"You can trust us" Andre said and Beck held her hand a little tighter.
"I know" Jade said with a cracking voice and took a breath to give herself the strength she needed.
"What did he do to you?" Beck asked and she looked down.
"I never knew what it was…not until after I escaped, he always said it was normal, he said that's how daddies showed their love" Jade said "It hurt a lot…for years, but then it was okay, I got used to it"
"Oh my god" Beck whispered and she sighed.
"He said he loved me and I believed him, he was my dad, he was all I had…" she commented sadly.
"When did he start raping you?" Tori asked and Jade closed her eyes, she hated to think about that word, she hated to think about the fact she'd had sex with her father.
"I don't know, it happened for years…and it's been a long time, I can't really remember a time when he wasn't doing it, but I know I was small, I remember always having trouble breathing when he was on top of me because he was so heavy" Jade responded.
"Jesus…" Andre said disturbed and she sighed in resignation.
"What about your mom?" Beck asked.
"Dad said she died giving birth to me, so it was just the two of us" Jade informed.
"Oh god, Jade, I'm so sorry" Tori said sincerely and Jade looked at her emotionlessly.
"It is what it is" She said.
"How did you escape?" Andre asked.
"I gained his trust" She responded "He started letting me out in the house when I turned fourteen, he even allowed me to sleep upstairs with him sometimes and I didn't do anything, so he felt comfortable letting me walk around, he even allowed me to watch TV, it was like a whole new world to me"
"That's how you found out about Jade?" Beck asked and she shook her head.
"No, he…he showed me the computer, he said he wanted me to learn new things and he taught me how to use it, he'd taught me some school stuff in the room too, like math and how to read, but he said computers were the future and he wanted me to be a smart girl" Jade said.
"Why didn't you use the computer to find help?" Andre asked and she rolled her eyes, she was annoyed by that remark because she knew it was the question everyone had, she felt they doubted her and it made her even doubt herself, she also wondered why she'd been stupid enough to believe her father's lies all those years.
"I didn't know I could get help, he was my dad, I belonged to him" She responded upset "You think I wanted to be there?" She asked angrily.
"Hey, it's okay, we are not doubting you" Beck affirmed.
"Not at all, I was just curious" Andre added and she sighed.
"How did you come up with the plan to impersonate Jade?" Tori questioned to change the subject and calm her down.
"I'd been watching TV for a while and some things started to feel odd, all the kids in the movies and shows I watched were happy, they played outside, they had friends, it's just…their lives were so different from mine" Jade commented "I was really confused for a while, but then I began to understand I was the odd one"
"And your dad didn't notice your confusion?" Robbie asked.
"Yeah and that's when he started saying we had a special kind of relationship, he said the world would never understand our love and that's why he had me hidden, to protect me" Jade responded and smiled upset as she shook her head "But I knew it wasn't right, the dads in the movies didn't do what my dad did to me, they were different and their kids looked happy…I just, I wanted that too, so badly" she added sadly.
"Did you ever think about going to the police?" Tori asked.
"No, movies showed kids getting returned to their parents when they were with the police and my dad always said that, he said if I ever got lost or ran away, the police would bring me to him" Jade commented "I knew I couldn't be myself once I left him, I had to find a place to hide and the police couldn't find me"
"So…you looked for missing girls who looked like you to take their place" Andre said and she nodded.
"It was easy, he never noticed because I was careful" Jade said.
"And what about the tattoo? How did you get it?" Tori asked and she chuckled.
"I cut the image of Jade's arm and showed it to my dad" Jade said "I told him I wanted it and I had been a good girl for months, so he let me have it as a birthday present when I turned fifteen" she commented.
"Did you go outside to get it or did someone come to your house?" Andre asked.
"We went to a tattoo place, that was the first time I'd ever been outside…it was really scary, there were so many people and so many noises and the sun was so bright" Jade commented "But my dad kept hugging me and saying he wouldn't let anyone hurt me, he stayed by my side until we were back home"
"How did you manage to get to Jade's house?" Cat asked and Jade smiled as she remembered.
"I wrote her address on my hand and memorized it, I looked at maps online and I kind of knew where I had to go…and then I just asked people, it took me a while but I got there" She commented "It was all so perfect, they were happy to see me, they gave me a room with windows and I got to go out every day for therapy and the doctor, they bought me new clothes, they showed me new places and months passed and I finally started to be normal, I wasn't a freak anymore" She said gladly.
"You were never a freak" Beck affirmed.
"I had lived my entire life in a basement, yes, I WAS a freak" Jade said "But then I became Jade and I was normal and I was happy, I even started to forget all those horrible things…but now it's over, why did she have to come back? Why couldn't she stay away?" She asked angrily referring to the real Jade.
"Jade, those are her parents, you lied to them" Tori said
"They needed a daughter and I needed a family, everyone won, everyone was happy, it was perfect" Jade responded and they looked at each other.
"Yeah, they are not too happy now" Tori said.
"The police are looking for you" Andre added and she looked at them nervously, she hadn't expected Evelyn to actually call the police.
"I can't go back to a cell" Jade said scared and they looked at each other mortified.
"I'm sure if you tell the truth, they won't send you to prison" Beck affirmed but she shook her head.
"No, I can't risk it" Jade said "They won't believe me" she added and then someone rang the bell, so they all turned to the door.
"Relax, it's probably the pizza we ordered earlier" Tori said and opened the door only to see Anna and Alex outside.
"What are you doing here?" Beck asked confused and Jade felt her blood going cold.
"Security cameras, Beck, they never lie" Anna said and looked at Jade "Hi Jade, you need to come with us now"
"No, please don't do this" Jade said nervously.
"Don't make this harder than it has to be" She responded.
"I'm sorry, please…I just wanna go, I promise I will go away, please don't do this" Jade begged and the cops looked at each other.
"I'm sorry, we have no choice" Alex said and Anna handcuffed Jade's hands behind her back, as she looked down terrified "Jade Doe, you are under arrest for impersonation"
:(
I know, it's sad buuuut I hope you guys liked the chapter
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