Is this destiny?

Sarah and Aiden held each other in silence, and Sarah remembered four girls with whom she spoke while Aiden was in the basement.

"Love?", Sarah called. She saw that Aiden is looking at her, and she continued slowly while choosing her words: "There is a number of girls who don't want to go home because their family will not accept them. They are coming from cultures where woman's chastity is valued highly, and it does not matter if they were with a man or not, because they spent so much time away from home without supervision, their society will brand them as spoiled."

Aiden listened carefully and tilted his head. He wondered if he missed something because this story does not sound like a reason for Sarah to be so cautious when talking (yeah, he noticed). "Some cultures are like that. There is nothing we can do about it. If they don't want to go to their families, we can drop them off wherever they want."

"What if they don't want to leave?"

Aiden's eyes darted for a few seconds over Sarah's face before his eyebrows shoot up. "You don't plan on adopting more kids, do you?"

Sarah raised her hand, gesturing to Aiden to calm down. "They didn't say that they want to stay with us. They just said that they don't want to go home. But I wanted to talk to you about this first… In case they don't have anywhere to go, are you OK with us taking in more kids?"

"These are not little girls. Most of them are close to being legal adults. And they don't have any skills which we can use.", Aiden stated several facts, all of them hinting that he is against that.

Ah, how is it possible that he forgot that Sarah likes to collect people (and animals)?

Sarah showed him her best puppy-eyed look. "Everything you said is valid. However, why would we need them to have any skills for us to use? When we took in the previous kids, we didn't look at what they know or what they can do. Those things just happened. If, and I am saying IF they don't have a place to go and IF they accept to join our family, we can provide them with a place to stay and they can pursue their education and once they are functional adults, they would go on their way. Isn't that the plan for all of our kids?"

Aiden found several holes in Sarah's story. "When they turn twenty-one and get jobs, you will send them away?"

Sarah wondered, why is Aiden talking about chasing their kids away? They have the space, and they can afford living expenses for everyone. "I will not send anyone away. And neither will you. However, they will know that they can leave once they are self-sufficient. We will not hold them back or force them into anything."

Aiden looked at the woman in his arms helplessly. "Why are you so good to people?"

Sarah can see that Aiden's resistance is cracking. "I don't think it's a big deal. For some of those girls, going back to their families would be torture. In extreme cases, they might be murdered. I can't force them to return to such unwelcoming places, and most of them are not experienced enough to survive on their own even if we give them the money. Without life skills and education, any amount of money will burn quickly, and they will be set for a future filled with struggles. And on the other side, our Beach house is empty and we have plenty of spare rooms at the Cliffside villa as well…"

Aiden knows that he can't make himself say 'no' to Sarah, but he hopes that those girls will have a place to go and that they will not ask to stay with them. It's not that he minds more kids, but he hopes that the next one who comes into their home will be their biological child.

Sarah saw that Aiden's expression softened and she took that as a 'yes'. She hugged him tightly and took a deep breath, inhaling his woody-flowery fragrance.

Her mind drifted off to Meili and she was upset that even after all this talk about properties and plans and getting more kids, that lying girl is coming to her mind. "Love, I want you to know that no matter what anyone says, I will never turn against you. If I catch you with a bloody knife in your hand, I will help you bury the body and hide the evidence. As for assaulting a woman, you proved to me that even when you are hallucinating under the influence of drugs, the only one on your mind is me. You are my God and I worship you."

Aiden shut his eyes tightly while suppressing the resurfacing of hazy memories about that wretched night when Madison drugged him, and he ended up hurting Sarah. Sarah speaks about that in a positive light, but for him, it's the worst thing that he ever did. He will never be able to forgive himself for that.

Aiden opened his eyes and met Sarah's loving gaze, and that is the only thing that can soothe his emotional turmoil. "I've told you before. I am in love with your soul. So, no matter what anyone does to my body, my soul will not allow me to be with another woman. Because you are the only one for me. Now and forever. You are my Goddess and I worship you."

Aiden tightened his hug on Sarah, and they held each other in silence.

…

Earlier in the family room…

Sarah and Aiden left, and the room was in complete silence.

All the girls looked at Meili for some time before they started awkwardly glancing around. They all had the same questions, but they were unable to make themselves speak up. Is it possible that Meili lied? Why would she do that? Or is that video fake? If Aiden is the bad guy, aren't all of them in danger?

"Why are you silent?", Stacy, a woman from the army of Chaos ranks broke the suffocating silence. "Our boss told you to discuss, ask questions, and decide for yourself what the truth is. Or do you already know what happened without asking anything?" Stacy pointed a Xiaohui. "You! Will you believe the blind accusations of your friend or the video which our boss showed you?"

"I don't know. This is all confusing.", Xiaohui admitted.

"If it's confusing, ask clarifications. It is simple." Stacy responded and gestured toward Meili.

Xiaohui felt as if the crisp Stacy's voice is tearing her confused mind apart. "It may be a simple thing for you, but we are just teenagers."

Stacy snorted. "Teenagers? Let me tell you about myself. My name is Stacy Lamb. Until the age of seventeen, I switched more foster families than I can count. I was used and abused for longer than I wish to remember. Boss found me working in a strip club owned by a gang. She asked me one question: do I want to change my life? She gave me a home and a job, and a safe environment where it's not OK for a man to touch me if I'm not willing. At first, I could not believe it, and then it sank in that I've got a new lease on life. I learned skills to defend and to attack when needed and it gave me the confidence I have now. You say that you are teenagers, I am twenty-two years old. And my boss who you casually call Sarah just recently celebrated her twenty-first birthday. Age does not have much to do with maturity. If you don't know what to ask her, allow me to start with one simple question…"

Stacy turned to Meili. "Did Aiden assault you?"

"No.", Meili responded.

The girls in the room gasped in unison.

"The video showed what really happened?", one girl from the side asked Meili.

"Yes."

Xiaohui looked at Meili in disbelief. "You made it up?"

"Yes."

"Why?", a girly voice from the back asked.

"He refused me, and I wanted him to suffer. I figured that you will believe the story that he forced himself on me. If I can't have him for myself, at least I can make others hate him…"

The girls listened to Meili without breathing or blinking. Gradually, their faces of shock turned into frowns.

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