She was coming with Mauve from the back of the house. The only thing that was at the back of the house was dad's garage that Nate had converted to his hangout spot.
Whenever his friends from school came around, they never went into the house. They always stayed in the garage, smoking and drinking. Nate was not a very good child. Mum always shouted her lungs out when he was younger.
One time, she complained about her blood pressure hitting the roof because she had one thing or the other to shout at Nate for. I couldn't understand why she always chose to talk to him. Afterall, he still ended up in prison, didn't he?
'Yeah. I am.' I said.
Mauve looked really pretty in the short green gown she wore. It was the exact color of her eyes. I enjoyed looking at her eyes. They were clear, they were green.
'Kassy, your face is red, were you crying?' Mauve said when she got to where I was standing.
I had been crying but I lied and told her I was sneezing because Emily had put too much pepper in the noodle she served me. I knew Alicia did not buy it but she said nothing.
'Well, we're meeting Lauren. She's on that list.' Alicia said.
'We're meeting her? You got her contact details? How?' The book we took from mum's room only had their names and addresses. It was shocking that she had spoken to this Lauren woman.
'There's a page that has contact details too. Just some of the women anyways.'
'Lauren's was the first on the list. I called her and she said she would meet up so let's get going.' She patted my shoulder and walked away.
Alicia was really into this seeing Nate's victims thing, even more than I was.
After a little argument on who was going to drive us to the ice cream shop, we finally went with Alicia.
Meeting with Lauren was very weird. She was oddly very welcoming and she went outside for a smoke from time to time. She was beautiful and spoke slowly. She only said a few words at a time and she had this permanent smile on her face.
She only answered questions we asked her and it felt like she was hiding so much. I could not blame her anyways.
'How did you meet him?' Alicia asked.
'High school. My science lab partner.' She smiled.
I was confused. I did not understand why she was so nice to us. It was sort of unreal, like she was pretending. After so much back and forth on the question and answer. She stood up and looked at the three of us.
'If you spoke with Lauren, that's probably what she would have said. She would have told you how your brother raped her on her office table after he came in for a job interview.'
'But Lauren is not here. Lauren died four years ago. Lauren killed herself. Lauren was my twin sister. Dammit!' She walked out of the shop.
I was shocked. I could not say anything. Alicia had tears dropping from her eyes but she said nothing. Mauve got up and looked at the direction of the door and said nothing.
We stayed there in silence trying to process what had happened. It was very shocking to know that one of Nate's victims committed suicide.
Lauren's twin sister told us Lauren met Nate in high school. They had dated for a while and when they graduated, they lost contact with each other because Lauren went abroad for college.
Lauren's twin sister said Nate needed a job and coincidentally, Lauren was the branch manager in one of the offices he submitted his resume to. Lauren recognized his name and called him in for an interview and after it, he raped her.
I felt very horrible. My brother had no regard for anyone.
He just had this hunger that could never be satisfied. He was an animal that made irrational and thoughtless choices. I buried my head in my palm and cried.
I imagined how hard it must've been on Lauren for her to take her own life. Her twin sister must have gone crazy when she died. I understood the feeling that came with losing a loved one but I knew I did not know half of what Lauren's twin sister went through.
All the times she had gone out for a smoke, she was crying because it hurt her so much to meet with the evil people that are related to her sister's cause of suicide.
Mauve tapped my shoulder and told me it was time to go.
I looked around and some of the people in the shop were looking at us weirdly. I could only think about the possibility of Nate raping anyone of them or their relatives or their friends.
My throat was very dry. I began to cry. I cried for Lauren, Alicia, Mauve, Victoria, Hannah, Kathy and all the other women I was yet to meet.
Nate was a very wicked person and I felt no emotional attachment towards him anymore. I just wanted him as far away from me as possible. He had caused so much havoc and nobody knew about most of them.
We went to the car and Alicia did not drive out immediately. She just kept looking at Mauve and I.
'You guys heard what she said too right?' Alicia's voice was shaking.
'Maybe she did not do it because of Nate.' Mauve said.
'How are you still protecting him?' I could not help myself. I had to shout. I did not understand why Mauve was always trying to cover Nate's tracks or bring up excuses for him.
'I'm not. I just don't want to believe it.' She was crying.
It was a lot for anybody to take in. I was too shocked to even think straight. Nate to me was no different to a murderer.