Once he sat down, he said, “Talking isn’t going to fix this, Alysa.”
“Tell me what will and I’ll do it,” I said.
“Don’t make promises you can’t keep,” Burke barked.
I wanted to take that earpiece out, but it was impossible to do so in front of Jasper and Reesa. I would have a lot of explaining to do and what trust they had in me would be gone.
“There are reasons we didn’t want anyone to know we were related,” he said.
“What were they?” I asked.
Jasper looked at me and I could see pain in his eyes. “You don’t want to know, Alysa.”
Once again, I reached out and touched his hand. “I do. You can tell me anything, Jasper. I promise, I won’t judge.”
He sighed and let out a long exhale. Reesa nodded, and finally Jasper began. “This story is not a work of fiction. And a horror film is tame compared to what we have faced. Tabiq used to be a country filled with loving families. Then one man, a very wealthy man, came here and found a way to turn his millions into billions by exploiting our woman.”
I knew what he was about to say, but I needed to hear him say it. Well, Burke did.
“This started about forty years ago, and much of what I will say has been told to us our father.” I nodded and he continued. “Many were attracted to the money he flung around. Law. Order. None of that mattered. If you spoke up against what was happened, your life became in danger. Many good men died trying to save Tabiq a path that would almost destroy us. My family for generations had always been one to support the local towns. But when our father wouldn’t join and actually encouraged others not too, he had been attacked. He didn’t just have himself to think about, but our mother as well. That’s when he decided to leave our family home and go into hiding, so they’d be killed. I wasn’t born yet. Neither was Reesa.”
“It sounds like he had no other choice but to flee,” I said.
Jasper nodded. “Our family once had money and prestige in Tabiq, and now lived hiding in the woods, farming the land and sheltering us.”
“I’m sorry. But I still don’t understand why no one knows you have a sister,” I inquired.
“Because my mother became pregnant. And she feared that if anyone knew, they would track her until they learned if the baby was male or female. You see, there is money to be made in…virgins.”
I felt sick but needed to hear more. “They took the young girls?”
He continued. “When a girl turned eighteen, the military came for her. She was sold for a night, or a week, or a month, then returned as…damaged goods.” He closed his eyes and added, “And they were. All of them were raped-some came home pregnant, some were mentally scarred, and others were never seen again.”
When he opened his eyes, he was looking at his sister with a compassionate expression. “My parents never told anyone about their firstborn. And when I came along, my parents sent me to live with my uncle in the city. They feared that one day I would want to leave the farm and join the fight against what was happening. My parents feared that if so, and the secret ever be revealed about Reesa, they would come for her.”
“Oh, my God. I’m so sorry that you both had to go through that,” I said. Burke had informed me of Tabiq’s past, but hearing it from Jasper and Reesa, people I knew who lived it, was so much different. I could see the pain in their eyes. They had been young and couldn’t do anything about it. And now Jasper is really trying to make a difference.
Reesa said, “I am a lucky one, because I was never caught and sold. My parents gave up so much to protect me. Even gave up their son.”
I understood why they’d hidden their relationship back then. But why now? Tabiq was not under the same rule. “But you’re not hiding any longer. Why the secret?”
Jasper said, “Because my opponent will use anything in his power to get me to back down. And if he knew I had a sister, he would take her. She would be gone faster than I could stop him.”
“But there is no more human trafficking here.” Is there?
“We still have girls go missing. They do not report them to the police. They do not trust the law to help. I am their only hope at this point. But if I lose the election, and Ocalla wins, this country will fall once again.”
Not if the Hendersons have anything to do with it.
“I know that I’m new here, but can’t you go public with this and bring what has happened here to the world and ask for help?” I asked.
“Letting the Americans in is what brought this upon us in the first place. I won’t make the same mistakes our forefathers have. We stand or fall on our own. And now the secret is out,” he said with a pointed glare.
“Jasper, I won’t say anything,” I said firmly.
He raised a brow and asked, “Not even to James?”
“James?” I asked.