Chapter 24 - The Fear That Followed Her Home
Arthur Bell was charged.
The private research company denied knowing the data had been obtained through abused children.
No one believed them.
Investigators seized servers.
Twenty-three survivors received formal notification.
More came forward.
Thirty-one.
Forty-six.
Eventually sixty-two.
Safe Harbor had not been one building.
It had been a method.
Rebecca became one of the public faces of the case.
She hated that.
Television producers called.
Podcasters called.
Documentary companies offered money.
She refused all of them.
“I spent my childhood being observed,” she said. “I’m not turning recovery into another performance.”
But the fear followed her home.
That was the part newspapers would never understand.
Arthur was in jail.
Lenora was in prison.
Elias was dead.
Still, Rebecca could not use the washing machine.
She tried.
Some days she touched it.
Some days she ran downstairs and unplugged it.
Once she made it through half a cycle.
Then the lock engaged.
Click.
She screamed.
I found her sitting on the floor with both hands over her ears.
“I failed.”
“No.”
“I was doing better.”
“You were.”
“Then why am I here?”
“Because better isn’t straight.”
She hated that answer.
She later admitted Dr. Morgan said the same thing.
Months passed.
Owen learned to crawl.
Daniel and Elise began living together again.
Martin continued serving his sentence.
Emily bought a washing machine.
She never used it.
But she bought one.
“That counts,” Rebecca said.
One Saturday, Owen came to the bookstore with Elise.
He crawled directly toward the utility room.
Rebecca froze.
The machine was open.
Empty.
Owen pulled himself upright against it.
Rebecca’s breathing changed.
Elise moved to pick him up.
Rebecca stopped her.
“Wait.”
She crouched.
“Owen.”
He smiled.
The same baby whose screams had started everything.
Rebecca approached slowly.
She lifted him.
For one second she stared into the drum.
I saw the fear rise.
The little girl inside her remembered being trapped.
The adult woman holding Owen remembered something else.
Mara opening the lid.
Daniel staying.
Elise fighting.
Rebecca surviving.
She carried Owen out.
Then returned.
She placed one towel inside the washer.
Closed the lid.
Pressed start.
The machine filled.
Rebecca stood beside it.
Click.
Her eyes closed.
Her body shook.
She whispered:
“I can leave.”
Then she walked away.
Not running.
May you like
Walking.
The cycle continued behind her.
