“Loved?” Marigold asked. “Like all you needed to do was show up to earn their acceptance?”

“…Yes,” Sasha admitted, suspicious.

“Did they, sort of, swarm you? But in a nice way? Everyone hugging you and holding you and offering you safe, physical affection?”

“Yes…”

Marigold nodded, as if she’d just gotten the answer to a longstanding question.

“They love-bombed you.”

“What?”

“It’s a tactic cults use,” Marigold explained. “You sorta overwhelm someone with love and acceptance and camaraderie and all that. It nurtures loyalty. And dependence.” She shrugged. “It’s a smart way to manipulate young people in your position. You’ve just fled your home and family for a strange and dangerous land. You’re scared and alone and isolated. And then, like magic, you’ve got a family and a support network.”

“You are so cynical…” Sasha had to fight back the urge to say “damned cynical.” This woman was making her forget herself. She opened her mouth, as if to deliver a tongue-lashing, but the words wouldn’t come. Instead she just narrowed her eyes at Marigold and stared for a few seconds.

“I’m leaving now,” she said. “I’m going to go enjoy the companionship of my new family. You enjoy this cell.”

Then Sasha turned on her heels and walked out.

She returned late to the House of Miriam. The other girls had already finished dinner. Helen had left out Sasha’s plate (a ham sandwich, carrot sticks, an apple, and a small block of cheese) and she took it into the common room where the other girls were talking and winding down from their day.

“Look who finally showed up,” Mae sneered when she walked in. “I guess you’re too important to eat with the rest of us now?”

“I–” Sasha started to reply. Then she saw Anne and Susannah huddled in the same corner where they’d all sat last night. There were tears on Anne’s face, and her eyes looked swollen and red. She made no noise, but her back and shoulders shook as she sat there, half-shielded from view in Susannah’s embrace.

Sasha gave Mae a dirty look but turned and moved past her, toward her friends. She heard the other girl scoff and say something to her coterie of friends. Sasha couldn’t hear what, though, and she didn’t much care. She squatted down next to Anne and put a hand on the back of her neck.

“Hey,” she said, not sure what else to say. Susannah met Sasha’s eyes and offered up a sad smile. Anne continued to sob. For a few minutes, they just held her. Sasha burned with morbid curiosity over what, exactly, had happened. She knew it must have something to do with Kyle. Anne had been set to meet with him today. Had he revealed himself as a Son of Jacob too?