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Zack was in a daze. He still couldn’t wrap his head around the news he’d received from Finn. It was as if this was some sort of movie, and he was standing outside of his body watching it all unfold. Nothing in his life had prepared him for this moment. If someone had told him a week ago where he would be standing today, he would have laughed in their face.
Sarah was his sister.
Correction, half-sister.
His dad couldn’t keep it in his pants and had knocked up Sarah’s mom at pretty much the exact same time as his own mother had been pregnant with him. Then he’d kept it a secret. It had only been found out because Lloyd Daniels, Sarah’s stepdad, had made a statement to Finn that Joel Winslow was Sarah’s actual biological dad. He’d said that every month a deposit would be made into their bank account to take care of Sarah as long as the mother, Tracy Daniels, kept quiet about the parentage. Sarah had never known and had thought some other guy was her biological father.
It was sick and twisted and just the thing that Joel Winslow would do. And now everyone would know. Zack had no doubt his father was going to act like this was no big deal and ignore it like it had never happened. That’s how his dad dealt with situations that he didn’t like - he’d simply pretend it wasn’t real and that everyone else was being emotional.
It wasn’t normal for Finn to discuss an ongoing case, but he’d said that someone in his office had admitted to talking and it would probably be all over town by tomorrow. He didn’t want Zack to hear it from someone else via the gossip train.
Zack had a half-sister. Sarah. It explained why his dad had discouraged him when he and Sarah had been working on a group project for school together. Zack hadn’t even been romantically interested in Sarah - she’d been dating Ethan - but Joel had gone on and on about how Angel was the perfect girl for Zack and Sarah wasn’t. It hadn’t made any sense back then, but it did now.
Lucy had been a rock in the storm since he’d hung up with Finn. She’d held his hand as he’d explained it to her, all the while navigating him to a more secluded spot where half of the town wouldn’t see him. He hadn’t even been thinking about that when he’d talked to Finn, but luckily, she had.
Finn and Zack had decided to have a more private discussion at the sheriff’s station. It looked like the coroner was almost ready to give their verdict as to cause of death.
“I can wait here if you like,” Lucy offered, pulling into a parking spot near the sheriff’s station. She’d driven him as he was still upset.
“I don’t want you sitting in the car,” he replied. “You’re not going to find out anything that’s going to be a secret anyway. The whole town is going to know all about this. Finn said he’s going to fire the assistant that talked about it. I don’t want someone to lose their job.”
“They should lose their job,” Lucy said. “Yes, we have a gossip problem, but it doesn’t give people free range to talk about private statements in an ongoing investigation. I’m sure they were warned about this kind of thing when they took the job. They broke the rules.”
“You sound like my sister Frankie. She’s a stickler for rules. Shit, I’m going to have to tell my family. I need to do that right away after we talk to Finn.”
“He might have already called them, at least Tate or Cooper,” Lucy pointed out. “But yes, you should talk to them. And your father.”
Finn might have called Joel Winslow as well.
“The last person I want to talk to is my dad. I’m so fucking angry with him. I don’t even have words to express my disgust for him as a quasi-human being. My expectations for him aren’t even all that high. Just when I think he’s gone as low as he can go, he surprises me with new depths of horrifying behavior. There is simply no way to explain his way out of this one. I can only wonder if Mom knew.”
“You don’t have to go in there if you don’t want to,” Lucy said. “You can talk to Finn tomorrow or the day after. Nothing is going to change in that span of time. You don’t have to put yourself through this. Let Tate or Cooper do it.”
Pretending all of this wasn’t happening might work for tonight, but eventually he’d have to face it head-on. He might as well do it now. The one thing he’d learned on Wall Street was that ignoring reality wasn’t a valid long-term strategy.
“I need to do this,” he said. “I can only imagine how Cooper is going to react when he finds out, if he doesn’t already know. He pretty much hated our dad before this…”
“I’m also worried about Piper,” Lucy replied. “She’s bitter, as well. And of course, Sam…”
Shit, Sam. Bless him, he’d tried to be there for their dad, but Joel Winslow didn’t give a tinker’s damn about anyone but himself. From what Zack had seen, his brother Sam knew exactly what a jerk their father was. But that didn’t mean that Sam didn’t have some hope for their parent deep down inside. This would pretty much dash any of that away.
Hand in hand, they walked into the sheriff’s station. There were several deputies inside and every single head swiveled in their direction as they walked through the door. A hush fell over the room as everyone froze in place. It was awkward and tense, and Zack hated being the center of attention. He glared back at the officers and the poor receptionist at the front desk who was flustered, her face bright red.
“Hi, we knew you were coming,” she said. “We didn’t think you’d be here so quickly. The sheriff is still meeting with someone. Can you have a seat? He’ll be right with you.”
Deputy Blake stepped in between them, casting a glare over his shoulder at the younger deputies who immediately went back to work.
“I’ll handle this, Sherri. Zack and Lucy, why don’t we step over to my desk? I can fill you in on a few details of the case while we wait for the sheriff.”
That sounded like a good idea because just standing here in the entryway being watched like a television wasn’t pleasant. The other guys might be pretending to be doing something, but Zack could feel their sideways stares.
“I feel like an animal in the zoo,” he whispered to Lucy as they followed Blake to his desk and sat down in a couple of old metal chairs across from him.
“Me, too.”
“Ignore them,” Blake said, scowling at his co-workers again. “They’re acting like children instead of law enforcement professionals. They know better.”
