Selena Kitt - Grace

Leah sighed, shaking her head. “I hate to go to the Justice of the Peace. I don’t know how in the world I’m going to plan this wedding on such short notice. I may have to give up the idea, I don’t know. How are we going to find a reception hall on this sort of a notice? It will have to be the fastest wedding planned. You’d think I was pregnant or something!”

Erica snorted. “And what about invitations?”

“Well as soon as we know when and where!” Leah rolled her eyes. “Rob said he’d have a courier hand deliver them if he had to, in order to save time. Tomorrow we’re going for the blood test and to apply for the license.”

“Blood test,” Erica muttered. “Right.”

Leah frowned, hesitating before asking, “Erica, where have you been sneaking off to at night?”

Her friend paused as she reached for her dungarees. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Come on, you can tell me. We’re best friends, remember?” Leah reminded her, watching Erica pull on her pants. “Is it that boy Clay, the one you invited to Christmas dinner?”

“If you must know… yes.” Erica scowled, grabbing a hairbrush off her dresser. “But don’t tell him.”

Leah flushed, shaking her head. “I won’t.”

“I know better.” Erica scoffed. “Now that you’re getting married, you’ll tell each other everything.”

“Why are you so mad at me?” Leah wondered out loud. “Is it because I’m marrying your father? Because I thought we were over that…”

“Over it?” Erica snorted, yanking the hairbrush through a tangle. “Yeah I’m over it. Besides, he’s not my father. And you are most definitely not my mother.”

“What?”

Erica opened a jar of cold cream on her dresser. “My mother wasn’t even my mother, so as far as I’m concerned, none of you can tell me what to do.”

Leah sat up straight, frowning at her friend’s reflection in the mirror as she spread white stuff over her face. “What are you talking about?”

Erica rolled her eyes. “Look, I know you’re living in your own little world right now, and everyone’s walking on eggshells trying to protect you, but God, Leah, you aren’t the only person in the world. You’re not even the only person in this house.”

Leah’s heart felt like it was beating in her throat. “What do you mean Rob’s not your father?”

“You know the blood test which proved he wasn’t your father?” Erica asked, using tissues to wipe away the white cream on her cheeks.

Leah nodded. She had been so grateful to Father Michael for volunteering to do some digging while she was still at Magdalene House and see if he could prove, one way or the other, if Robert Nolan was her biological father, as Leah’s mother had initially claimed. The test had mercifully come back conclusively ruling him out as her biological father.

“Yeah, well… you and I have the same blood type.” Erica rubbed foundation on her face from her compact with a sponge, covering the dark circles as best she could. “That blood test ruled him out as my father too.”

Leah gaped at her. “How… what…?”

“I’m adopted,” Erica explained patiently, dusting her face with powder. “They adopted me when I was a baby. From Magdalene House. How’s that for a kick in the pants?”

“Wow.” Leah blinked in disbelief. They had talked a little since Leah had come home-Leah had told Erica about living at Magdalene House, the girls she’d met there, her experience of pregnancy and birth, but Erica had been moot about what she’d done and what had happened while Leah was gone. Leah knew something had happened, because she had seen Erica taking part in the Mary Magdalene ritual, but she didn’t know how to approach her about it. How could she tell Erica she’d seen her that night?

Finally, she just blurted it out. “I’m a Magdalene baby, Erica.”

Erica stopped applying her lipstick, only the top one painted. “What?”

“My mother told me. Finally, she told me the truth.” Leah swallowed, meeting Erica’s eyes in the mirror. “She and your mother… they were in the Mary Magdalenes together.”

“I know.” Erica looked thoughtful, painting her bottom lip. “But I didn’t know you were… I should have realized…”

Leah made a face. “It’s not great news, but it’s better than thinking Rob was my father.”

Erica smacked her lips together, turning to face her friend. “Just how much did your mom tell you?”

“Not much.” Leah shrugged, taking a deep breath before taking the plunge. “But I already knew most of it, Erica. I was there… I saw you… I saw your Dad-er… Rob. I saw you both.”

Erica blinked in surprise. “I saw you too.”

“You did?” Leah gasped, wide-eyed. She held out her hand and Erica took it, coming to sit beside her on the bed. “How did it happen? How did you get involved?”

“It’s a long story. It started when I found my mother’s journals, from before I was born… well, adopted. You aren’t going to believe this.” Erica laughed, shaking her head. “But my mother was in love with Father Patrick.”

Leah nodded. “That’s what my mother said.”

“She told you?” Erica raised her finely arched eyebrows. “Anyway, you know me and secrets. I have to poke my nose in everything.”

Leah laughed. “Curious kitty cat.”

“It was all so mysterious and scandalous, and I just kept on, wanting to find out more. I kept thinking I was going to infiltrate this secret society and expose them and what a big story that would be…” Erica laughed at the way Leah was looking at her. “I know, I know, curiosity killed the cat. And before I knew it, I was drugged up and strapped to a cross…”

“They drug you?”

Erica wrinkled her nose. “That’s not all they do.”

“I noticed.” Leah couldn’t get the images out of her mind, the Marys in white being pleasured on one half of the room, the Magdalenes in red being gagged and bound, sometimes whipped, on the other.

“How in the world did you get involved?” Erica wondered out loud.

“There was a girl at Magdalene House,” Leah explained. “I told you about her. The redhead who reminded me of you. She was one of the Magdalenes. She told me about because she wanted me to come with her for that ritual. I guess they were paying girls to be, like, waitresses…?”

“Oh the attendants. The girls in blue?”

“Yes,” Leah agreed. “I mean, it paid a fortune. Fifty dollars! I thought I could use that money to run away from Magdalene House with my baby. Besides, I didn’t really quite believe her, not at first. I just thought… I don’t know what I thought. But I didn’t expect to walk into that…”

“Who would?” Erica chewed her lower lip thoughtfully. “Anyway, once I found out that Daddy… Rob… was involved, well… what could I do? If I told anyone, he’d get in trouble too. Besides, they make it pretty clear, once you’re in, it’s a lifetime sort of commitment. If you tell… there are consequences.”

“Father Patrick told you that?”

Erica gave a little shudder, reaching for one of her Keds. “He scares me, Leah.”

“He scares me too.” Leah remembered the way he’d been at their dinner table, so smug and patronizing, telling her she was a sinner in the eyes of God, that her baby was a bastard, unclean, and would remain unbaptized. After everything she’d seen, knowing now what she did about what Father Patrick had done, not only to Erica, but to Erica’s mother as well, his holier-than-thou attitude astounded and offended her.

But of course he thought he was above them, above it all. Untouchable. Leah had been around nuns and priests her whole life, and she’d learned her lessons well. It was hard not to think of them all as infallible, even invincible. She remembered her mother’s words- he was like a living god -and shivered. They took young, impressionable girls and brainwashed them into their ritualized sect, drugged them, abused them, and used their years of Catholic indoctrination about the infallibility and irreproachability of the church to keep them from revealing the secret.