Opal by Helen Hardt
KELLY
I won’t rest until I see you back on that island.
I shiver as I read the latest text message.
Haven’t I been through enough? I’m finally learning to accept my life, my past, work through not only my time on the island but my childhood as well. The therapist hired by the Wolfe family, Macy, has been great. I have to commend the patience she has with me.
I’m not an easy person to deal with.
I never knew that until recently, but now I’m beginning to see why I do some of the things I do.
Why I was the way I was on the island.
Why I am the way I am now, and how to go about making the changes that I want—need—to make in my life.
But someone doesn’t want that.
And I don’t understand why, because she has the same past that I have.
Her name is Brindley
Brindley McGregor. But her name on the island was Smoky. Short for smoky quartz, because of her grayish eyes.
Her eyes aren’t gray so much as bluish gray, but she was one of the last women to come to the island before it was shut down, and maybe they were running out of gemstone names.
I was known as Opal, and honestly I’m not sure why. My hair is auburn and my eyes are dark blue. Opal seems more of a light-blue name, but who knows? I never stopped to think about why they named me Opal. I didn’t care.
I just accepted my fate. I accepted it because I figured it was all I deserved.
After all, my childhood was…
Less than adequate.
I laugh out loud at my own thought.
Less than adequate? What a fucking euphemism. As a rule, I hate euphemisms. Why not be blunt? Why not be offensive? Life is blunt and offensive sometimes. More often than not, in my opinion.
My childhood sucked. I was beaten, locked in closets, told what a piece of shit I was on the daily. Rarely did I get enough to eat.
Life on the island? It sucked too, but at least I was fed. They kept us fed well, because we needed to be strong.
We needed to be worthy prey.
That’s what those men paid for.
They wanted to hunt us, like animals. It was a game to them. Once they caught us, they could feel like big strong masculine guys because they had captured worthy prey.
Most of the women there didn’t understand me. Hell, why should they? They all came from great backgrounds, decent childhoods. Maybe not perfect childhoods, but were they beaten? Starved for days on end? Locked in closets? Forced to—
I shake my head, refusing to let the words dig into my mind.
I’m trying to work through this stuff, deal with it, but there are still things I can’t think about.
I live in the subsidized housing that the Wolfe family put together for us, and I listen, during group therapy, to the other women talk. Lily is here—Tiger Eye from the island—and Katelyn and Aspen have already left. But some new women have arrived—Francine known as Peridot, Marianne known as Pearl, and of course, Brindley.
Smoky herself.
I look at the words on the text again.
I don’t know Smoky’s background. She only arrived at the building a week ago, but she started texting me right away.
Right when I was breaking through, making progress.
Feeling that maybe I didn’t deserve to be taken to that island.
Maybe I didn’t deserve the horrible abuse I suffered as a child.
Maybe I’m better than all of that.
Then here comes Brindley, telling me I’m not.
I stuff my phone into my small purse and leave my apartment. I’m going over to the office building to talk to Reid and Rock Wolfe.
I want to put an end to this once and for all.