Niall Horan
Cleo was crying.
I hadn't seen my sister cry in six years and I honestly didn't know what to do.
My emotions were all over the place, I was feeling a lot of pain from the recent gunshot on my shoulder, a huge headache from the past thirty minutes of listening to every information my sister had to tell me, and also sick to my stomach after she confirmed what I had been wishing it wouldn't be true.
I didn't say anything as I listened to her, it was rare to see Cleo talking so openly like this so I just let her speak and I tried to keep up and process, but I gave up the moment she started telling me about this list.
This was so damn confusing and complex, it somehow turned out to be a large web and we were all stuck on it, struggling to find a way out.
And she told me about Harry too.. and fuck.
I started following her after the day we went to my mother's house and we actually saw my father's files, and I was very much shocked when I found out she was staying at Harry Styles' house.
The first thing that popped in my head was that she was involved with this, helping my mother and working alongside Harry and Desmond somehow, and I wanted to get more evidence and figure out what the hell they were doing.
When I saw my mother and Desmond talking, I thought I was hallucinating, but now I was starting to connect the dots. That's how she always knew what he was up to, because he told her... not some random informer.
They were working together and I didn't know why or doing what at first, but the moment I saw the files and the dozens and more dozens of little girls and boys that were sold by my father, it was another piece to add to the puzzle.
That's how I realized why my mother had decided to open Eroda... that's why we only had three regular dancers and the others never stuck around longer than a month. I used to think it was weird because it seemed to be a safe space, I mean, June and the other girls seemed happy.
I started doing my own research since I also had access to the strip club's files and computers, and I tried to track the girls down by their names or social security numbers, but it was all fake. I couldn't find any girl that had previously worked at Eroda and their personal information was made up, they were no one. I felt so fucking naive.
My mother was using the club to carry on my father's work, and I played a fool and asked around. But even though no one knew that Desmond was working with my mother, some of the older clients my mother had known the truth about what my father did.
They knew he was trafficking children and teenagers from other states and countries, and that's how he started to build his glorious legacy in New York City. Some of the men also mentioned that my mother was doing a great job with Eroda and the girls, and I honestly had to rush to the closest restroom so I could puke. The fact they assumed I knew about it only made it worse.
I spent many sleepless nights thinking that Cleo was helping our mother... especially because she disappeared right when I saw Desmond talking to her, and I wondered if sometimes Cleo's job could be something related to getting the people trafficked.
It hurt me so fucking much to even think this of my sister, it made no sense to me. But I was desperate and heartbroken... keeping this facade around my mother was very tiring and I wasn't sure how long I'd be able to keep this up.
I was pretending I was sick or simply ignoring her calls lately, I had no energy to play along and pretend things were okay. It hurt to know that the person you loved and looked up to was actually a vile human being.
