Vera Nelson: The Person Who Finally Tells Angelica the Truth

Vera Nelson: The Person Who Finally Tells Angelica the Truth I think Vera deserves a little more attention in Hellchild: Blood Money, because once everything starts going wrong, she's the person who finally explains what Angelica has actually walked into. At first we're watching her with Jake. He's the wealthy guy whose father can make a phone call and hire someone to deal with a problem. Vera is an escort working for Tor, and there's clearly something personal developing between them. That doesn't make either of them prepared for what happens at the party. Anne overdoses. Tina wants to call an ambulance. Ben shoots Tina to keep her from making that call. Jake and Vera are there, and neither of them stops it. Jake calls his father, and the response is to clean up the house and make the bodies disappear. Vera doesn't tell Angelica a version where she's secretly the hero of that night. When the truth finally comes out, she includes her own failure to act. I think that's an important part of her. She's frightened and caught in something awful, but the story still lets her acknowledge that two other women needed help and didn't get it. Jake would rather keep giving Angelica as little information as possible. At the motel, he even tries to turn the money being paid into a reason she shouldn't ask questions. Vera is the one who stays and answers them. She explains that she chose escort work when she was younger because she needed money. That doesn't mean she has the freedom to leave now. Tor's operation owns people once they're inside it, and some of the women were kidnapped in the first place. So when Jake talks as if his relationship with her is the whole reason Tor is angry, he's leaving out a much bigger and uglier situation. Vera knows it isn't just a jealous boss they can pay off. What I like is that she gets something to do with that knowledge besides explain the plot. When Angelica goes after Jenny, Vera helps them get into Joan's party. She knows Joan from previous events and works out their cover. Inside, she finds the captives by getting information from a guard. Then she pretends to be drunk to distract the guards so Angelica can get to them. She's scared, but she's participating. There's a difference between handing the dangerous work to the strongest person in the room and choosing to stand there with her when the plan could get you caught too. And it does. Their rescue attempt gets exposed, and Joan and Tor say Jake gave them up. Vera ends up a captive herself. Whatever she hoped for with him, his involvement does not turn into some clean romantic escape from her old life. Jake is killed at the auction. Vera survives. When Angelica apologizes afterward for not being able to save him, Vera tells her it wasn't her fault. That's where this story leaves her, not with a complete recovery or a new life conveniently explained in a few panels. She's alive at Harry's place with Jenny and Angelica. Tor escaped, so even the threat isn't neatly gone. For me, her strongest part is that she starts as somebody who couldn't act when another woman needed help, then later helps Angelica get into a place where more people are waiting to be sold. She doesn't suddenly become fearless or powerful. She knows enough about these people to be terrified, and this time she helps anyway.