“Discipleship and membership have always been separate. You know that. Membership is voluntary and open to everyone. Discipleship is reserved for a select few who can pass certain tests or are brought in as a form of loyalty test as part of someone else’s discipleship.”

Her words knocked the air from my lungs. “You tricked people?”

“We didn’t trick anyone. That’s not how it worked. Every person and situation was different. Bekah was Will’s exchange for me.”

“Exchange?” I couldn’t wrap my brain around anything she was saying. None of it made sense. Discipleship was all about choice—free will. How did any of this fit with that?

“Abner wanted proof that Will was willing to give up the thing that was the most important to him for Love International, so he asked to lie with me for one night. But Will refused to share me even for a night.” Her eyes filled with pride. “The problem was that Will had been with Abner long enough to know that he couldn’t simply refuse his request. He needed something to offer him in return, and it had to be equal to what Abner was asking, or he’d never consider it. He told him he could do better than allowing him to experience me. He could have his own virgin. That’s how Bekah came into play.”

My eyes widened. “You were a virgin when you married Will?” She nodded. “But you were twenty-six.”

“I was a committed Mormon before him.”

That meant Will was still the only man she’d been with, since she’d told me during our mentorship that they practiced monogamy. I took a moment for it to sink in. “How did it work?”

“What do you mean?”

“You can’t just put an ad in the newspaper asking for virgins. How’d Will find Bekah?”

“He didn’t.” Grief clouded her face. “I did.”

Horror filled my insides. “You found Bekah?”

“In a women’s devotional group on the south side of Atlanta.” She hung her head in shame.

“But that was just Bekah, right? Nothing like that happened with me, did it?” Margo refused to lift her head. Her silence was more than my answer. “Look at me,” I hissed. “Tell me what you did to get me here.”

“Nothing. None of that matters. I was—”

I interrupted her. “Yes, it does. You owe me the truth after everything we’ve been through.”

She cleared her throat, eyes still downcast. “I’m sorry, Kate. I really am. It was a long time ago. You need to remember that. A different lifetime ago, really.”