Is this destiny?

Sarah and Aiden joined the girls in the family room.

The two of them were confident that the girls will not come to an agreement on how to punish Meili, so they waited for girls to go to sleep before they go to the basement to interrogate Akmal and his buddies. Aiden suggested that they go to their hotel for the night, and to leave interrogation for tomorrow, but Sarah told him that it will be quick and that she will sleep better once that is out of the way.

Both Sarah and Aiden were surprised to hear that girls called them to discuss punishment for Meili.

Back to the present...

"I heard that you made some decisions related to Meili.", Sarah said to the girls who all looked at her and Aiden in silence.

Rosa stood in front of the girls and she looked at Aiden guiltily. "We know that Meili was lying. We are all sorry for doubting you and we hope that you can forgive us."

Aiden\'s glare was focused on Meili who was by herself in the back, clutching onto the sleeping bag and a towel-bundle with toiletries in the middle.

Sarah saw that Rosa\'s expression fell when she realized that Aiden is ignoring her, and she decided to speak in his stead. "We don\'t expect your thanks or your apologies. We only hope that you realized your mistake."

Sarah glanced over the faces of the girls and her sight landed on Xiaohui. "Do you think the same as Rosa? Do you believe that Meili lied?"

"I do. I thought that she is my friend. I thought that she is not able to lie about something this big. I was wrong. And I am truly sorry.", Xiaohui said while staring at the carpet.

Sarah took a deep breath before responding: "As I said, we don\'t need your sorry. Do you know why?", Sarah saw that most of the girls either shrugged or shook their heads, so she explained: "If this went public, if my husband\'s image was tarnished in the media, if he ended up dragged in the court, people would label him as a molester no matter if he was found guilty or not at the end. Do you think that any amount of sorry would fix that? As you get older, the game of life is getting more serious. You need to use your brains and think before you act. Keep your mind open and hear out both sides before you judge someone. I hope that you all learned something today. Now go to sleep."

"We want to join you!", Azra exclaimed when she saw that Sarah and Aiden are ready to walk away.

Sarah\'s steps halted. "You want what?"

"We want to join you.", Azra repeated. "We heard that we can join training camps and learn skills."

It\'s not that Sarah didn\'t expect this, but… "Do you think that is a summer camp where people have fun while learning how to sew a button and build a raft? You are kids."

"We are not…"

"Stop!", Sarah cut off Rosa\'s next words. "Do you think that this is a game? Do you think that we are a charity organization? We rescued you and we will help you get to your next destination. How much more you expect us to do for you? Sometimes, you need to help yourself. What we do is dangerous. If you have a family that will welcome you and keep you safe, go to them. This is not open to a discussion. Go to sleep and don\'t wander around until morning. If you need something, there will be guards in the hallways."

Aiden listened to Sarah and gave her a silent thumbs-up. If he didn\'t know what they talked about in the study previously, he would believe that Sarah is not willing to take these girls under her wing. But he agrees that this is not a game and if the girls have families to return to, they should do so. And he hopes that all the girls go away, because if some of them end up staying… Will that affect their honeymoon? He felt like crying.

The two of them left the girls behind to be ushered by Zoey and Stacy and a few other army members upstairs.

Sarah and Aiden headed to the basement and just as Sarah said, it didn\'t take long.

They started from two Akmal\'s customers: Brant Dunn and Tyson Tufte.

Mr. Dunn is Akmal\'s customer for several years and he explained that he would pick a girl, take her to his vacation home on Lake Mead, and return her a few days later when he is done with her.

Sarah cringed at the thought of how those \'returned girls\' were in the last room they looked at.

For Mr. Tufte, this was his third time to come to Akmal as a customer. He would take a girl to one of the homes owned by his family and when he was done with the girl, his grandfather would take care of the girl. Tyson never asked what happened with the girl after that.

Sarah asked Mr. Dunn to point on the map exact location of his vacation home where he would take girls, and Tyson told them about shady deals his grandfather is involved with, that are covered up under their billion-dollar company which Tyson is set to inherit.

Sarah stepped out and issued few orders to Ernesto who summoned men to drag Mr. Dunn and Tyson out.

As soon as they confirmed that Akmal is under the influence of the truth serum, Sarah asked a question that burned her since her talk with Mr. Dunn.

"What do you do with girls who are returned to you?"

"I give them to my men to play with."

Sarah gritted her teeth and asked her next question. "For how long?"

"Until they had enough."

Sarah didn\'t want to ask for clarification of what that means. Her goal was to find out where those girls end up when they leave this place. "What happens when they had enough?"

"The desert is big and ruthless. Girls in their condition won\'t make it longer than a day or two. And once they can\'t move anymore, desert dwellers like coyotes will take care of any evidence."

Sarah felt that her insides churned, and her state was shifting between nausea and beating Akmal into a pulp.

"Calm down, love…", Aiden\'s voice came from behind Sarah and only then she realized that he embraced her from behind. "If you lose control, he will find his end too quickly."

Sarah closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths while leaning into Aiden\'s embrace. When she felt that she calmed down enough for a conversation, she looked at Akmal: "I knew that you hate women, but this… How can you treat a human like that?"

Akmal sneered. "A human? They are not humans, they are worthless females, just like you… Created to serve men, and that is what I am allowing them to do."

"Why do you think that females are worthless?"

"Because of woman\'s stupidity, we fell from Heaven. Because of women, men lose their minds. That will not happen to me. I\'m empowering men, showing them that women are below us."

Sarah could not believe that he is masking his misogynist nonsense behind religion. "Because of your stupidity, this woman will make sure you wish that you are in Hell before you die."

Aiden saw that Sarah is losing it. He pulled her to the side and called Ernesto to proceed with interrogation. The goal was to find out about Akmal\'s suppliers and customers and also about the passports of the girls. Unfortunately, Akmal does not have any passports, but they collected data about his customers and suppliers.

While waiting for Ernesto and his men to finish Akmal\'s interrogation, Sarah slept off on the sofa.

Aiden could not believe that she slept off. But then he remembered that the day was long and emotionally draining and she needs a rest.

Aiden looked at her and was not sure what to do. If he takes her to the hotel, she will probably wake up and he knows that she is exhausted. He called the privates in charge of settling people to see if there is a spare bedroom and to his disappointment, they already filled all the bedrooms in the mansion with girls.

"There is a free bed in the second house…", a private said weakly.

Aiden carried Sarah to the back house and the two of them slept on the twin size bed with the rest of their army members (who were not on duty).

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