Wife Number Seven (The Compound, #1)(81)

“Really?”

“Absolutely. You will shine brightly, my darling. I just know it.”

My eyes blurred with tears, and I mimicked her posture, perching my chin in my hands. “Well, if I did . . . hypothetically speaking, of course . . .”

“Of course,” she said, urging me on with a smile.

“You’d always hold a special place in my heart. Always.”

Jorjina closed her eyes and nodded her head before clearing her throat and rising to her feet. “Well, off you go. I’ll, um, I’ll see you in the morning. Bright and early.”

“Bright and early,” I repeated, standing to face her. Taking two small steps forward, I wrapped my arms around Jorjina, resisting the urge to squeeze her too tightly. She was more fragile than Aspen; I had to be gentle.

“Thank you,” I managed to say, fighting the storm of tears that threatened.

? ? ?

I left Jorjina’s house and made my final walk back to the Cluff household, unable to wipe the grin from my face. Soon I’d be packed and waiting . . . waiting to exit this life and start anew. I began to take inventory as I entered the house and closed the front door behind me.

I needed to retrieve my phone from the closet and send a text message to Porter, letting him know that I’d made my decision. I needed to finish packing my suitcase, brush my teeth, and wait, wait, wait until the time was right.

When I walked past the kitchen, Brenda glanced up from the sink and nodded stoically. Piles and piles of dishes rested in soap suds beneath her hands. Normally I would have offered to assist her, but tonight I was no longer willing.

Tonight was about me. About my future. About everything I had to look forward to.

“Good night,” I simply said and she nodded in response. A sense of peace spread throughout my body, throughout my brain, calming the racing thoughts. In just a few short hours, I’d be free.

But that all changed when I opened my bedroom door to find my husband and his first wife standing in my room. Leandra held my purse in her hands and Lehi stood with his arms crossed, his cheeks bright red, his chest heaving and his nostrils flaring.

And everything changed in an instant.



Chapter 30

Months earlier . . .

Lehi was bone tired when the prophet requested a meeting. He’d been on several job sites, supervising young idiots who were too weak to carry a two-by-four, and too stupid to know it. His job was an exhausting one, but it allowed him to support his large family. He owed his position of prominence in the company to the prophet, and so he had learned that when the prophet requested a meeting with you, you didn’t say no. You accepted, you obeyed, and you fulfilled your duty to the one and only voice of the Lord.

“Come, sit,” the prophet had said. His hair was silver like Lehi’s, but it was shorter, more polished, as was his appearance as a whole. Lehi spent his days on construction sites; his hands were calloused, his skin rough and dry. The skin beneath the prophet’s eyes didn’t sink or hang like Lehi’s. Even though the prophet was balancing over thirty wives, he never looked exhausted.

Lehi wondered how the prophet was able to accomplish that. Lehi could barely handle the eight wives he’d been given; he couldn’t imagine having dozens and dozens of women demanding his time and energy.

“Two of your wives visited me yesterday, and I must say that I’m quite concerned, Elder Cluff. Quite concerned, indeed.”

Lehi had expected this topic of discussion. Both Leandra and Rebecca had informed him of their meeting with the prophet. He knew of Burt’s contact with his youngest wife, and he also possessed the letter in which Burt had begged Rebecca to leave with him.

Lehi was indifferent toward his newest wife, Rebecca. He knew her heart was unavailable, but it didn’t bother him in the slightest. He had made peace with the fact that he would never be involved in a love affair with any of his wives. Instead, he chose to appreciate them for their best qualities.

Leandra was a force to be reckoned with; she was strong and she kept the house running in an impressive manner, which reduced his stress. In the bedroom, he secretly called her “Captain,” referring to the tight ship she ran in the Cluff household. But Leandra was also domineering and demanding, and she exhausted him with her constant demands and complaints.

He remembered the day when he’d truly started to love Leandra, back when they’d been married for three years and shared only two children. Since then there were moments—small ones—where he felt complete, as if they could be content with just the two of them. But Leandra’s constant focus on their status as a family was exhausting and drained his heart of any true romantic feelings.

Her determination for the Cluff family to be held in the highest regard was difficult for Lehi during those days, but that was no longer the case. He’d witnessed firsthand how much more comfortable, how much easier life in the compound could be if your family was in good standing with the prophet. And Lehi had no intention of losing the status he and his family had attained. They’d worked for decades to achieve it, and he would fight with everything he had to maintain it.

And so, his indifference toward his eighth wife was not the issue. She was his now, and he was responsible for her actions, good or bad. Burt wouldn’t let go, and in addition to that, he was attempting to coerce Rebecca to leave their community. The shame that action would bring upon both families would be catastrophic.