"I guess" Jenny said, standing in front of her trailer, "I need to tell you something, but let's go inside." They went in the trailer and sat at the kitchen table, she poured them each a glass of warm lemonade from the pitcher, went in the bedroom, and came back carrying a hanky.
Charlie sat up in alarm. Jenny never cried. "What is it?"
"I need to tell you something and I think you may be upset" She sat down at the table, wringing the hanky, staring at the fake wood laminate. "You know I was - hurt."
Charlie nodded, tersely. She must have seen him out of the corner of her eye. Jenny, restless, got up, picked up a battered Bible, and sat down with her hand on it. "He went to prison, of course. Segregated because prisoners don't like people who do that to children."
Charlie swallowed.
She continued. "He had a hard time in there, as he should." She paused and rubbed the cover of the Bible. "He had a lot of time to think, off the drugs, actually went to counseling and worked on things." Charlie gritted his teeth. "He got saved."
Charlie stood up at that, cursing, wanted to hit something, clenched his fists and looked at Jenny, so sad at the table. He relaxed his hands and went over to her, rubbing her shoulder gently, and sat down again.
"What happened next?"
"He had a secret" she continued. "He came from money, a lot of it. They disowned him after his conviction but let him keep his trust. He had a lot in there. He used it to pay for protection,lawyer, etc. But after he got saved he stopped all that except for one job for the lawyer." She looked up at him "He wrote a will, leaving everything to me. It's in a trust."
Charlie sat, stunned. "It's blood money" he blurted out.
She smiled sadly. "It is. You wouldn't believe what my virtue went for." She met his eyes. "I can get anything I want."
She went on to explain how he had written her a letter, repenting, explaining how he had been molested "By a woman" she said, "He was very careful to say that", as a child, how the drugs had taken his reason until he found himself in chains in front of a judge.
"He made it clear nothing he could say would make up for it; but he wanted me to have the money so I would at least not have to worry about that."
"He died in prison" Charlie replied. "I assume another inmate got him."
"Well" she looked down at the floor "My father was in prison for killing someone in a bar fight. Someone got him some pictures of what was done to me" Charlie coughed "So the inevitable happened, especially since my abuser had stopped paying his protection money."
She met his eyes "But as he's bleeding out on the floor he looks up at my father, forgives him,and says he sees Jesus. So my Dad got saved out of it, too"
Charlie thought about it for a minute. Mija. Killed a man in a fight. Protective.
He stood up. "Is Miguel your father?!"
"Yes". She replied
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