Grown(67)

“Nice to meet you, Enchanted.”

There is a scattering of about six women standing around the conference room, drinking coffee, nibbling on donut holes. Their chatter ceases the moment I pull back my hoodie.

“Oh, this isn’t everyone, if that’s what you’re thinking,” Dawn says. “Some people couldn’t make it to New York. Some were just plain scared.”

“They’re still scared of Korey?”

“Not just of Korey. Of the systems surrounding him too. Most are still coping with the effects from their trauma. Depression, anxiety, paranoia, insomnia, even delusions.” Cindy leads me to the coffee table. “We’ve been working with the girls for over a year. Please, help yourself! We’re about to get started.”

The stares are soul piercing.

I fix myself some tea to calm my nerves, something Grandma would do. Peppermint with honey.

“Hey.”

Her steps are so silent, just like back in the house. A quiet baby mouse.

“Amber?”

Amber nods, then hugs me. A weak hug, eyes somber and sunken. She’s lost weight, and her once bountiful hair has thinned with bald patches in the front.

“You OK?” she asks.

“Um, yeah. I guess,” I mutter, the cup hot in my hand. “How are you?”

She shrugs. “I’m . . . staying with a friend. My mom won’t let me come home yet. Said I wanted to be grown, so I better stay grown.”

“When did you leave?”

“I didn’t,” she says, voice drifting. “But Jessica was never gonna let me stay.”

“Thank you all for coming,” Cindy announces, standing at the head of the square conference table, her back to the door. “I know this is difficult and triggering. We appreciate your bravery.”

Eyes bounce around, all measuring one another, looking for the common thread.

“We just want to reiterate: what happens in this room, stays in this room,” Dawn warns. “We picked this secure location to keep you all safe.”

Next, we each take turns introducing ourselves, and Cindy brings us up to speed on the ongoing investigation into Korey. An investigation that started long before I even met him.

“Now that he’s dead, what happens?” a woman named Lily asks.

Cindy sighs, tapping her pen on the table.

“Well, it’s not the preferred outcome. We would rather have had a conviction. Still, we have our voices to shed light, and urge prosecutors to continue the investigation.”

“Yeah, and no one is going to believes us,” a woman named Robyn scoffs. “This is pointless now.”

“Raising your voice is never pointless! We can still go after his estate and the label. Sue them for damages and hold them accountable. People on their staff knew what Korey was doing, aided and abetted. That shouldn’t go unchecked.”

“You mean they knew his preference for little girls,” Lily corrects, snark mixing with her perfume.

“Aight, I’m just gonna say it,” a woman named Dione says, turning to me. “I was surprised as hell he chose YOU. He usually likes girls with long, pretty hair.”

The other women nod, their hair flowing down to their shoulder blades. Not a short cut in the room.

“And you sang with him . . . like, onstage.”

“She has an amazing voice,” Amber says, eyes on the floor.

“Oh, so I don’t?” Lily snaps.

“Easy, Lily,” Dawn warns. “No one said that.”

“They said you had a breakdown,” Dione says. “Which, I don’t blame you. Not after living in that house. But I mean, did you really have to kill him?”

My blood turns cold. “I didn’t.”

The room mutters.

“It’s crazy that he was still doing it,” a woman named Tessa says. “Still chasing after young girls. Even after the settlements.”

“Why did you settle?” Amber asks.

She shrugs. “Lawyers said there wouldn’t have been a chance in hell of a conviction. The best thing I could do was take care of myself. And he blackballed me. No managers, agents, or producers would touch me. My career was over before it started.”

“I settled too,” Dione says. “Detectives tried calling me an uncooperative witness and dropped the investigation all because I had the flu and couldn’t make an interview. Real talk, I was scared. All those death threats and phone calls.”

“I honestly thought settling meant he would’ve learned his lesson, you know?” Tessa shakes her head. “But I think that just gave him more power. Like, he realized he could get away with it and wanted it even more.”

“My mom got a letter with these . . . pictures Korey had taken of me,” Robyn says, blinking back tears. “Said, if I didn’t shut up, they’d release the photos.”

“He was threatening you,” Cindy says. “It’s witness intimidation tactics. To scare victims and silence survivors so they won’t come forward.”

“I know I was with him the longest,” Dione mutters. “Five years.”

“When was it over for you?” Lily asks.

Dione glances into her cup, her face ashen. “When he choked me until I passed out.”

No one gasped. No one except me. It’s like they were all too familiar with his dark side, which makes me realize . . . I only touched the surface of it.