When You Were Mine (8/?)
Title: When You Were Mine (8/?)
Author: fortunata13
Pairing: Cara/Kahlan
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: None
Word Count: 3032
Disclaimer: I own nothing. Most certainly, I do not own these characters.
Summary: BIG REVELATIONS!
A/N: I rated this chapter NC-17 because it could be trigger-y for some readers -- nothing graphic, but definitely sensitive.
“Kahlan, are you going to talk to me?” Cara asked, rising to her feet the moment Kahlan walked in the door.
Kahlan blinked and dropped her purse on the floor. “No,” she said, “I just drank three gigantic vodka tonics; I’m drunk, and I’m also very horny. So if you don’t mind, I’m going to go in the shower and take care of half my problem.” That certainly wasn’t the response Cara expected. She was tempted to ask Kahlan if she could at least watch but she decided the odds were pretty high that Kahlan would crack a vase on her head, or maybe shoot her.
Cara lay awake for most of the night trying to figure out what exactly she’d done that made Kahlan so mad. It didn’t help that every time she closed her eyes she was presented with a vivid mental image of Kahlan getting herself off in the shower. Given the roller coaster of emotions she’d been on since moving in with Kahlan, Cara was starting to feel that prison -- and the certain death that came with it -- would be a lot less stressful than her current living arrangements.
At around six in the morning Kahlan walked into Cara’s room -- without knocking -- and said, “Can you please explain this to me?” She was standing in the middle of the room -- in her underwear -- holding a DVD in one hand, with her other hand on her hip.
Cara sat up in bed, took a long look at Kahlan, then directed her attention to the DVD. “Well, it’s a form of digital storage that’s been around since the ’90s.”
Kahlan glared at her. “Play it,” she said, tossing it at Cara with more force than necessary.
Cara had a mind to tell her to go straight to hell but she managed to suppress the impulse. “You’re being rude as fuck,” she said as she popped it into the little TV/DVD combo device that was also straight out of the ’90s. It only took Cara a half a frame to realize what they were watching.
She reached for the remote but Kahlan wasn’t having it. “Don’t,” she said, pointing her index finger at Cara. She shook her head; Kahlan was as stubborn as ever. She stood there glaring at Cara, while Cara’s eyes were fixed on the tiny screen.
There stood Darken Rahl, along with a bunch of Cara’s so-called sisters, on the day of Cara’s eighteenth birthday. “Cara has no interest in seeing you, Ms. Amnell. As you can see, her tastes have changed. Ask her yourself, if you don’t believe me.” He looked toward the top of the stairs. Kahlan followed his gaze only to find Cara walking down with her arm around Dahlia’s waist.
“My dad’s right, Kahlan, I’m with Dahlia now. You need to move on with your life, I have.”
Kahlan’s lips parted but it took her a moment to form words. “I don’t believe you, Cara; I know you don’t mean it. If he’s making you say these things…” She trailed off with tears already running down her cheeks. “Baby, he can’t hurt us anymore. You’re an adult now, he can’t keep you here.”
“Oh, I mean it. I’ve been fucking Dahlia since I left your crummy apartment. What? We haven’t seen each other in two years, Kahlan. How fucked in the head are you to think that I’d still give a shit about you?” She took hold of a handful of Kahlan’s hair and dragged her to the door. “Stay the fuck away from me and my family. We Rahls don’t mix with you pathetic Amnells,” she said, shoving Kahlan out and slamming the door shut.
“Well done,” Darken said.
Cara pursed her lips and nodded her head, clenching her fists at her sides. She then took a step toward him so that they were standing nose to nose. “From this day on, I suggest you sleep with one eye open because one of these days, when you least expect it, I’m going to kill you, ‘Daddy’. You made me lose the only good and pure thing I had left in my life. But mark my words, it doesn’t end here. I swear, on my parents’ graves, it doesn’t end here.”
“Oh, Cara,” Darken said, “you’ve always had a flair for the dramatic. I gave you a choice: you leave, she dies; you stay, your precious Kahlan gets to live another day.” Not once in all the years since she’d been adopted by Darken had she given him the pleasure of seeing her cry. But on that day, Cara crumbled to the ground and cried like a baby.
“Turn it off,” Kahlan said, wiping away tears of her own. “How could you keep this from me? We’ve been living under the same roof, Cara.”
“What would have been the point, Kahlan? It doesn’t change anything. It was totally fucked up, but I did it because I loved you.”
“I had the right to know. Do you have any idea what I went through, what I still go through? I wanted to die. Do you understand that? I cried every day, I prayed to the Creator to make it all stop. I fucking married Richard in the hopes of making it stop. I had sex with him, Cara, multiple times. Once, I almost puked on him because I had to down a half a bottle of vodka before I could get into bed with him. It took me years to pick up the pieces of my life enough to actually function like a normal person.”
Cara shook her head and squeezed her eyes shut to hold back tears. “But you’re not dead, Kahlan. All the others, my parents, your mom, my sister, I couldn’t save them but I saved you. I don’t care if you hate me or if you think I’m a coward. I’d rip out my own heart to keep you safe.”
“But why, why didn’t you tell me the truth when we saw each other five years ago in Richard’s hospital room? Do you have any idea what a difference that would have made in my life, in our lives?” She sat on the bed next to Cara resting her hands in her lap, waiting for an answer.
“I didn’t want you to die. Darken would have killed you. It didn’t matter that I was an adult. He owned me, Kahlan. And he would have killed you just to spite me.” Cara closed her eyes and leaned back against the wall with her knees hugged to her chest. “He’s dead now, and you’re in a relationship with someone you care about. The last thing you need is a hot mess like me in your life.”
Kahlan released a derisive chuckle. “Yeah, I’ve been in many relationships, Cara. As a matter of fact, last night I was in a short-lived relationship with a hot little blonde in the elevator. It lasted just long enough to shove my hand down her jeans and make her scream.”
Cara raised her eyebrows and ran her hand through her own hair. “Yeah, that falls into the TMI category.”
“I’m that girl, Cara. You know, the one who’s too jaded to commit but keeps telling herself that when the right girl comes along she’ll stop waking up with strangers in her bed.”
“I’ve loved you since I was five, Kahlan. If I could change any of it I would, but I can’t. If it’s any consolation, I’m just as fucked up as you are and maybe a little worse than you.” Cara stretched out her legs so that Kahlan could rest her head on her lap.
“So do you love this NSA chick?” Cara asked, twirling a lock of Kahlan’s hair between her fingers.
“Love her? I don’t think so. The sex is good and she’s very attentive. Mostly, I call her when I’m feeling vulnerable -- or horny. Maybe that’s what love is: someone who makes you feel safe when you’re feeling vulnerable, and gets you off when you’re horny.” She lifted her head off Cara’s lap and kissed her on the lips. “You have the softest lips in the world,” she said, and rested her head on Cara’s lap again.
“Yeah, I do,” Cara said, eliciting a giggle from Kahlan even though she was still crying. “What? I do.”
“I’ll give you that, but I have epic boobs,” Kahlan said, looking up at her.
“So true,” Cara said, nodding her head. “However you slice it though, we’re both completely fucked up.”
“You’re right. I think all we can do is go back to sleep and worry about it later. Oh, but I do have a question for you. Why are you so vague about the details of Darken’s death?”
“Fuck if I know. It’s all kind jumbled in my head,” Cara answered.
“I knew you were going to say that. How about Paloma? Nice boobs?” Kahlan asked.
“Pretty epic but not as epic as yours.”
“Good,” Kahlan said. “So how many more copies of that DVD do you think are floating around? It gives you motive -- and it makes a case for premeditation.” Cara shrugged. With that, they curled up in each other’s arms and fell asleep.
***
The sound of shattering glass roused Cara from a sound sleep. “What happened?” she asked Kahlan, who was fully dressed with her cell phone glued to her ear.
“Don’t move, I’ll be there in an hour,” she said to the person on the other end. In the meantime, Cara busied herself picking up shards of glass. “Sorry,” Kahlan said when she got off the phone, “slippery fingers.” She sat down on the sofa with a blank expression on her face. “Talk to me, Kahlan.”
Kahlan turned to face her but it took her a moment to actually speak. “Mike subpoenaed Denna and Richard.” Cara rested her elbows on her knees and held her head in her hands. “Does Denna have any information that could hurt your case? Something must have motivated him to put her on the stand.”
“Denna and I lived under the same roof for years. Sure, she knows things about me but as far as these murders, I don’t know anything so I can’t even begin to imagine what she could know.” She leaned her head back on the sofa and closed her eyes for a moment. “But Kahlan, there are other reasons, unrelated to this case, why Denna can’t testify. If I need to change my plea to avoid it, I will.”
“Cara, why don’t you trust me? I won’t judge you and I won’t divulge your secrets, I swear on my life I won’t. Please, just talk to me.” She covered Cara’s hand with hers and waited but it was useless; Cara completely tuned her out and took to staring at the wall.
Kahlan released a frustrated sigh and grabbed her purse. “I’ll do my best to get the subpoenas revoked, but Cara, I can’t build a defense with an uncooperative client.” With that, she walked out the door.
What Kahlan didn’t tell Cara was that it was Denna who called her. She’d gotten served at six in the morning at the Stein mansion. That’s where Kahlan was headed, not the courthouse. After twenty minutes of waiting alone in the sitting room, Shota made her entrance, looking every bit the part of the grand dame of Aydindril; she’d earned it, Kahlan supposed. “Shota,” Kahlan said, greeting her with a polite smile once she and Denna entered the room. “It’s been a long time.”
Shota studied Kahlan’s features for a long moment before speaking. “You’re the image of your mother,” she said, while Denna stood by, taking in the exchange. “She and I were friends, you know -- and sometimes not. This town went to hell without her, and for a spell I went to hell, too.” She drifted off for a moment, as if lost in her own thoughts. “I loved her like a sister,” she added, looking at Kahlan with those piercing eyes.
“I miss her every day,” Kahlan said, her voice breaking ever so slightly.
“Well,” she said, “I’ll leave you two to sort out your business. She ran her fingers through Denna’s and kissed her on the lips, then disappeared into one of the many hallways that comprised the cavernous mansion. What struck Kahlan most was that Denna’s gaze had been fixed on Shota the entire time, and she was never more than a few inches away from her. Nothing or no one in the room mattered to Denna, only Shota. They may have had a twenty-year age difference and their relationship perhaps started as a business arrangement, but in seeing them together, Kahlan had no doubt that Denna loved Shota -- passionately so.
Denna promptly shut the door after Shota walked out. “I can’t testify at this trial.”
“Denna, what do you know about this case that could hurt Cara?” It’s the same question she’d asked Cara and she was met with the same stone-faced silence. “Denna, please, talk to me.”
“I don’t know anything about this case that could help or hurt her, but if I get put on the stand, there are things that’ll come out that’ll destroy her. And you’re wrong; I’m not in love with her. I think once upon a time I wanted to be her, but I see life more clearly these days.” She poured them both a glass of D’Haran whiskey -- even though it was only seven-thirty in the morning. “That first day, when she was brought into the Rahl compound, I thought she was a fucking idiot. All she had to do to spare herself the epic ass-kicking was call him daddy, like we all did, but Cara wouldn’t do it. She was this badass little kid who was willing to die on principle. The rest of us, we were too scared to ever stand up to him, but not Cara. She was sixty-five pounds soaking wet yet she stared him down like he was nothing.”
Kahlan had been a lawyer long enough to know that there were times when she had to allow a witness to ramble on for as long as it took to get to the truth. Denna was slowly unburdening herself and if she waited long enough, the secret she and Cara were keeping would pour out of her. “This is fucked up, but I’ll admit it, I was almost five years older than her and could barely read and write. Cara helped me out; she helped all of us out in different ways. And yeah, she pissed me off plenty of times and I kicked her ass even more times, but I’ll tell you, she was worth more than all the girls who came and went through that house of fucking horrors.” She paused for a long moment, gazing into Kahlan’s eyes. “Darken was a bastard of magnificent proportions but he wasn’t a pedophile. He liked fucking young girls, sure, but not prepubescent ones.”
Something about the way Denna’s eyes were fixed on hers made Kahlan want to run the hell out of there. Whatever Denna was about to say, Kahlan was certain she didn’t want to hear it. “That all changed,” Denna said. “With Cara,” she added after a long pause. Kahlan heard the words but it took her a moment to process them, and once she did, it was all she could do to keep breathing. “It wasn’t about sex,” Denna said. “It was about breaking her. Darken tried everything to get her to bend to his will but Cara was unyielding. He started raping her when she was ten.” Kahlan let the tears run down her cheeks but she didn’t make a sound; she just kept listening. “I kept her secret for years,” Denna said, and clammed up.
Without bothering to wipe away the tears and the runny mascara, Kahlan finally spoke. “What are you not telling me, Denna?”
Denna threw back another shot of whiskey and said, “There’s a kid, a boy. He’d be about eighteen by now.” Kahlan blinked and her lips parted. If the boy was eighteen, Cara would have given birth to him when she was eleven years old. “Darken was away on business when Cara went into labor -- a month before her due date. He never even knew she was pregnant. She was such a tiny thing; even members of the staff didn’t realize she was pregnant. Me and Berdine delivered the kid. It was fucking terrifying. Then a miracle happened. Two days after Cara gives birth and we’re scrambling to figure out what to do, Shota prances into the Rahl compound and tells me to get my stuff. Unbeknownst to me, she’d been negotiating a deal with him to buy my freedom -- I was seventeen and hot as hell. What Shota didn’t know was that I had a newborn baby in my backpack. That kid must have known he was in deep shit; he didn’t make a sound the entire time. When I told Shota what happened, she stepped up. She found the kid parents and she set the kid up for life. Cara and I saw each other a few times after that, but until today, Shota is the only person I ever told.”
This was far beyond anything Kahlan had imagined regarding Cara’s life at the Rahl compound. Denna’s retelling of the events left her in a kind of stupor. She sat there, for almost an hour, without saying a word. Denna thought maybe it had all been too much for her. Just as she was about to go get Shota, Kahlan snapped out of it. “I can’t ask you to perjure yourself, and I doubt that I’ll be able to get the judge to throw out the subpoena on relevance.” Kahlan picked up her purse and placed her hand on Denna’s shoulder. “Thank you,” she said, “had I known about any of this years ago, I would have killed Darken myself.”
“For what it’s worth, Cara doesn’t give a shit about what anyone other than you thinks of her.”
Author: fortunata13
Pairing: Cara/Kahlan
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: None
Word Count: 3032
Disclaimer: I own nothing. Most certainly, I do not own these characters.
Summary: BIG REVELATIONS!
A/N: I rated this chapter NC-17 because it could be trigger-y for some readers -- nothing graphic, but definitely sensitive.
“Kahlan, are you going to talk to me?” Cara asked, rising to her feet the moment Kahlan walked in the door.
Kahlan blinked and dropped her purse on the floor. “No,” she said, “I just drank three gigantic vodka tonics; I’m drunk, and I’m also very horny. So if you don’t mind, I’m going to go in the shower and take care of half my problem.” That certainly wasn’t the response Cara expected. She was tempted to ask Kahlan if she could at least watch but she decided the odds were pretty high that Kahlan would crack a vase on her head, or maybe shoot her.
Cara lay awake for most of the night trying to figure out what exactly she’d done that made Kahlan so mad. It didn’t help that every time she closed her eyes she was presented with a vivid mental image of Kahlan getting herself off in the shower. Given the roller coaster of emotions she’d been on since moving in with Kahlan, Cara was starting to feel that prison -- and the certain death that came with it -- would be a lot less stressful than her current living arrangements.
At around six in the morning Kahlan walked into Cara’s room -- without knocking -- and said, “Can you please explain this to me?” She was standing in the middle of the room -- in her underwear -- holding a DVD in one hand, with her other hand on her hip.
Cara sat up in bed, took a long look at Kahlan, then directed her attention to the DVD. “Well, it’s a form of digital storage that’s been around since the ’90s.”
Kahlan glared at her. “Play it,” she said, tossing it at Cara with more force than necessary.
Cara had a mind to tell her to go straight to hell but she managed to suppress the impulse. “You’re being rude as fuck,” she said as she popped it into the little TV/DVD combo device that was also straight out of the ’90s. It only took Cara a half a frame to realize what they were watching.
She reached for the remote but Kahlan wasn’t having it. “Don’t,” she said, pointing her index finger at Cara. She shook her head; Kahlan was as stubborn as ever. She stood there glaring at Cara, while Cara’s eyes were fixed on the tiny screen.
There stood Darken Rahl, along with a bunch of Cara’s so-called sisters, on the day of Cara’s eighteenth birthday. “Cara has no interest in seeing you, Ms. Amnell. As you can see, her tastes have changed. Ask her yourself, if you don’t believe me.” He looked toward the top of the stairs. Kahlan followed his gaze only to find Cara walking down with her arm around Dahlia’s waist.
“My dad’s right, Kahlan, I’m with Dahlia now. You need to move on with your life, I have.”
Kahlan’s lips parted but it took her a moment to form words. “I don’t believe you, Cara; I know you don’t mean it. If he’s making you say these things…” She trailed off with tears already running down her cheeks. “Baby, he can’t hurt us anymore. You’re an adult now, he can’t keep you here.”
“Oh, I mean it. I’ve been fucking Dahlia since I left your crummy apartment. What? We haven’t seen each other in two years, Kahlan. How fucked in the head are you to think that I’d still give a shit about you?” She took hold of a handful of Kahlan’s hair and dragged her to the door. “Stay the fuck away from me and my family. We Rahls don’t mix with you pathetic Amnells,” she said, shoving Kahlan out and slamming the door shut.
“Well done,” Darken said.
Cara pursed her lips and nodded her head, clenching her fists at her sides. She then took a step toward him so that they were standing nose to nose. “From this day on, I suggest you sleep with one eye open because one of these days, when you least expect it, I’m going to kill you, ‘Daddy’. You made me lose the only good and pure thing I had left in my life. But mark my words, it doesn’t end here. I swear, on my parents’ graves, it doesn’t end here.”
“Oh, Cara,” Darken said, “you’ve always had a flair for the dramatic. I gave you a choice: you leave, she dies; you stay, your precious Kahlan gets to live another day.” Not once in all the years since she’d been adopted by Darken had she given him the pleasure of seeing her cry. But on that day, Cara crumbled to the ground and cried like a baby.
“Turn it off,” Kahlan said, wiping away tears of her own. “How could you keep this from me? We’ve been living under the same roof, Cara.”
“What would have been the point, Kahlan? It doesn’t change anything. It was totally fucked up, but I did it because I loved you.”
“I had the right to know. Do you have any idea what I went through, what I still go through? I wanted to die. Do you understand that? I cried every day, I prayed to the Creator to make it all stop. I fucking married Richard in the hopes of making it stop. I had sex with him, Cara, multiple times. Once, I almost puked on him because I had to down a half a bottle of vodka before I could get into bed with him. It took me years to pick up the pieces of my life enough to actually function like a normal person.”
Cara shook her head and squeezed her eyes shut to hold back tears. “But you’re not dead, Kahlan. All the others, my parents, your mom, my sister, I couldn’t save them but I saved you. I don’t care if you hate me or if you think I’m a coward. I’d rip out my own heart to keep you safe.”
“But why, why didn’t you tell me the truth when we saw each other five years ago in Richard’s hospital room? Do you have any idea what a difference that would have made in my life, in our lives?” She sat on the bed next to Cara resting her hands in her lap, waiting for an answer.
“I didn’t want you to die. Darken would have killed you. It didn’t matter that I was an adult. He owned me, Kahlan. And he would have killed you just to spite me.” Cara closed her eyes and leaned back against the wall with her knees hugged to her chest. “He’s dead now, and you’re in a relationship with someone you care about. The last thing you need is a hot mess like me in your life.”
Kahlan released a derisive chuckle. “Yeah, I’ve been in many relationships, Cara. As a matter of fact, last night I was in a short-lived relationship with a hot little blonde in the elevator. It lasted just long enough to shove my hand down her jeans and make her scream.”
Cara raised her eyebrows and ran her hand through her own hair. “Yeah, that falls into the TMI category.”
“I’m that girl, Cara. You know, the one who’s too jaded to commit but keeps telling herself that when the right girl comes along she’ll stop waking up with strangers in her bed.”
“I’ve loved you since I was five, Kahlan. If I could change any of it I would, but I can’t. If it’s any consolation, I’m just as fucked up as you are and maybe a little worse than you.” Cara stretched out her legs so that Kahlan could rest her head on her lap.
“So do you love this NSA chick?” Cara asked, twirling a lock of Kahlan’s hair between her fingers.
“Love her? I don’t think so. The sex is good and she’s very attentive. Mostly, I call her when I’m feeling vulnerable -- or horny. Maybe that’s what love is: someone who makes you feel safe when you’re feeling vulnerable, and gets you off when you’re horny.” She lifted her head off Cara’s lap and kissed her on the lips. “You have the softest lips in the world,” she said, and rested her head on Cara’s lap again.
“Yeah, I do,” Cara said, eliciting a giggle from Kahlan even though she was still crying. “What? I do.”
“I’ll give you that, but I have epic boobs,” Kahlan said, looking up at her.
“So true,” Cara said, nodding her head. “However you slice it though, we’re both completely fucked up.”
“You’re right. I think all we can do is go back to sleep and worry about it later. Oh, but I do have a question for you. Why are you so vague about the details of Darken’s death?”
“Fuck if I know. It’s all kind jumbled in my head,” Cara answered.
“I knew you were going to say that. How about Paloma? Nice boobs?” Kahlan asked.
“Pretty epic but not as epic as yours.”
“Good,” Kahlan said. “So how many more copies of that DVD do you think are floating around? It gives you motive -- and it makes a case for premeditation.” Cara shrugged. With that, they curled up in each other’s arms and fell asleep.
***
The sound of shattering glass roused Cara from a sound sleep. “What happened?” she asked Kahlan, who was fully dressed with her cell phone glued to her ear.
“Don’t move, I’ll be there in an hour,” she said to the person on the other end. In the meantime, Cara busied herself picking up shards of glass. “Sorry,” Kahlan said when she got off the phone, “slippery fingers.” She sat down on the sofa with a blank expression on her face. “Talk to me, Kahlan.”
Kahlan turned to face her but it took her a moment to actually speak. “Mike subpoenaed Denna and Richard.” Cara rested her elbows on her knees and held her head in her hands. “Does Denna have any information that could hurt your case? Something must have motivated him to put her on the stand.”
“Denna and I lived under the same roof for years. Sure, she knows things about me but as far as these murders, I don’t know anything so I can’t even begin to imagine what she could know.” She leaned her head back on the sofa and closed her eyes for a moment. “But Kahlan, there are other reasons, unrelated to this case, why Denna can’t testify. If I need to change my plea to avoid it, I will.”
“Cara, why don’t you trust me? I won’t judge you and I won’t divulge your secrets, I swear on my life I won’t. Please, just talk to me.” She covered Cara’s hand with hers and waited but it was useless; Cara completely tuned her out and took to staring at the wall.
Kahlan released a frustrated sigh and grabbed her purse. “I’ll do my best to get the subpoenas revoked, but Cara, I can’t build a defense with an uncooperative client.” With that, she walked out the door.
What Kahlan didn’t tell Cara was that it was Denna who called her. She’d gotten served at six in the morning at the Stein mansion. That’s where Kahlan was headed, not the courthouse. After twenty minutes of waiting alone in the sitting room, Shota made her entrance, looking every bit the part of the grand dame of Aydindril; she’d earned it, Kahlan supposed. “Shota,” Kahlan said, greeting her with a polite smile once she and Denna entered the room. “It’s been a long time.”
Shota studied Kahlan’s features for a long moment before speaking. “You’re the image of your mother,” she said, while Denna stood by, taking in the exchange. “She and I were friends, you know -- and sometimes not. This town went to hell without her, and for a spell I went to hell, too.” She drifted off for a moment, as if lost in her own thoughts. “I loved her like a sister,” she added, looking at Kahlan with those piercing eyes.
“I miss her every day,” Kahlan said, her voice breaking ever so slightly.
“Well,” she said, “I’ll leave you two to sort out your business. She ran her fingers through Denna’s and kissed her on the lips, then disappeared into one of the many hallways that comprised the cavernous mansion. What struck Kahlan most was that Denna’s gaze had been fixed on Shota the entire time, and she was never more than a few inches away from her. Nothing or no one in the room mattered to Denna, only Shota. They may have had a twenty-year age difference and their relationship perhaps started as a business arrangement, but in seeing them together, Kahlan had no doubt that Denna loved Shota -- passionately so.
Denna promptly shut the door after Shota walked out. “I can’t testify at this trial.”
“Denna, what do you know about this case that could hurt Cara?” It’s the same question she’d asked Cara and she was met with the same stone-faced silence. “Denna, please, talk to me.”
“I don’t know anything about this case that could help or hurt her, but if I get put on the stand, there are things that’ll come out that’ll destroy her. And you’re wrong; I’m not in love with her. I think once upon a time I wanted to be her, but I see life more clearly these days.” She poured them both a glass of D’Haran whiskey -- even though it was only seven-thirty in the morning. “That first day, when she was brought into the Rahl compound, I thought she was a fucking idiot. All she had to do to spare herself the epic ass-kicking was call him daddy, like we all did, but Cara wouldn’t do it. She was this badass little kid who was willing to die on principle. The rest of us, we were too scared to ever stand up to him, but not Cara. She was sixty-five pounds soaking wet yet she stared him down like he was nothing.”
Kahlan had been a lawyer long enough to know that there were times when she had to allow a witness to ramble on for as long as it took to get to the truth. Denna was slowly unburdening herself and if she waited long enough, the secret she and Cara were keeping would pour out of her. “This is fucked up, but I’ll admit it, I was almost five years older than her and could barely read and write. Cara helped me out; she helped all of us out in different ways. And yeah, she pissed me off plenty of times and I kicked her ass even more times, but I’ll tell you, she was worth more than all the girls who came and went through that house of fucking horrors.” She paused for a long moment, gazing into Kahlan’s eyes. “Darken was a bastard of magnificent proportions but he wasn’t a pedophile. He liked fucking young girls, sure, but not prepubescent ones.”
Something about the way Denna’s eyes were fixed on hers made Kahlan want to run the hell out of there. Whatever Denna was about to say, Kahlan was certain she didn’t want to hear it. “That all changed,” Denna said. “With Cara,” she added after a long pause. Kahlan heard the words but it took her a moment to process them, and once she did, it was all she could do to keep breathing. “It wasn’t about sex,” Denna said. “It was about breaking her. Darken tried everything to get her to bend to his will but Cara was unyielding. He started raping her when she was ten.” Kahlan let the tears run down her cheeks but she didn’t make a sound; she just kept listening. “I kept her secret for years,” Denna said, and clammed up.
Without bothering to wipe away the tears and the runny mascara, Kahlan finally spoke. “What are you not telling me, Denna?”
Denna threw back another shot of whiskey and said, “There’s a kid, a boy. He’d be about eighteen by now.” Kahlan blinked and her lips parted. If the boy was eighteen, Cara would have given birth to him when she was eleven years old. “Darken was away on business when Cara went into labor -- a month before her due date. He never even knew she was pregnant. She was such a tiny thing; even members of the staff didn’t realize she was pregnant. Me and Berdine delivered the kid. It was fucking terrifying. Then a miracle happened. Two days after Cara gives birth and we’re scrambling to figure out what to do, Shota prances into the Rahl compound and tells me to get my stuff. Unbeknownst to me, she’d been negotiating a deal with him to buy my freedom -- I was seventeen and hot as hell. What Shota didn’t know was that I had a newborn baby in my backpack. That kid must have known he was in deep shit; he didn’t make a sound the entire time. When I told Shota what happened, she stepped up. She found the kid parents and she set the kid up for life. Cara and I saw each other a few times after that, but until today, Shota is the only person I ever told.”
This was far beyond anything Kahlan had imagined regarding Cara’s life at the Rahl compound. Denna’s retelling of the events left her in a kind of stupor. She sat there, for almost an hour, without saying a word. Denna thought maybe it had all been too much for her. Just as she was about to go get Shota, Kahlan snapped out of it. “I can’t ask you to perjure yourself, and I doubt that I’ll be able to get the judge to throw out the subpoena on relevance.” Kahlan picked up her purse and placed her hand on Denna’s shoulder. “Thank you,” she said, “had I known about any of this years ago, I would have killed Darken myself.”
“For what it’s worth, Cara doesn’t give a shit about what anyone other than you thinks of her.”