“You look just like your mother,” Ryan swallowed a tear welling in his eyes.
I wanted to scream, to yell, to cry, but instead I just stared. Dustin’s hand grabbed mine, lending me his strength. “I didn’t know.”
“What’s she talking about?” One of the men asked.
I hadn’t said anything. I didn’t want to face him, to be in the room with the man who’d left me. The one that couldn’t save me from Midas. He tried to reach out and grasp my hand, and I stepped back.
“How are you here right now?” I asked, and he swallowed guilt, crossing his face.
“When your mother and you didn’t show up I got worried. I was on my way back when I heard the police scanner. I’m so sorry I should have been there for you.” His voice was low, as if he had waited a lifetime to say that to me.
I just stared; he didn’t come back for more.
“Who is she Dad? Why is she calling you Ryan?” the younger man spoke, and I looked at him. They looked like Ryan. The same mouth, the same nose. It was scary, the resemblance, and I wondered if I looked the same.
“Boys, this is Summer. Your older sister.” He half heartily smiled and there was silence.
I looked down the hallway, wanting to escape the heated looks from everyone, but Dustin held me to the spot.
“Wait, what?” The one who’d called him dad asked.
There was a pause as I swallowed back tears. “You left us with him, you left me with that monster.”
Tears fell down my cheeks as I faced the hurt. The years and pain all coming down to this moment.
“When I was on the way to you, I was picked up by the FBI, they were following a group of criminals that included Midas, I did something I wasn’t proud of when I was young. They offered me a choice, help them or go to jail.” Ryan spoke.
“So what about our mother? Did you ever love her?” The older man asked.
“Yes, but I never planned to have you two. It just happened, by the time I met your mother I had been establishing C.O.R.E. and working under the alias Brian Lockwood for close to five years.”
“So it was all a lie? What even for? Midas is still out there and you have a whole other child we’ve known nothing about,” the younger spoke, his hands balled into fists.
“No, it was never a lie. I love you two and your mother, but she was not my first love.” He reasoned. I couldn’t listen to this anymore. I pulled my hand free of Dustin’s and walked back toward the bedroom. Slamming the door in the process.
“Hey,” Scott hummed, opening the blanket, ready to welcome me into his warm embrace.
“Hey,” I whispered back, still unsure of all the emotions I was feeling.
“Come here.”
And I did, curling into his embrace as he smoothed hair out of my face. My tears splashed against his chest, and he huggedme tighter. I stayed there because he was the safer option, and after everything that happened, he was the one who did me the least harm.
54
INVESTED OUTCOME
January 7th
“Finished?” I asked Lucas as he looked up from the girl’s dead body.
“No.” he said, then stapled another section of the girl’s chest closed. “Now I am done.”
“So?” I asked, glancing at my watch.
“Intact, blunt force trauma and water in the lungs. Systematic breakdown of her organs although to say it was the head trauma would be the most likely scenario. It is unlikely the girl would have survived even without it.” He threw his gloves in the trash can, and I nodded.
I didn’t do dead bodies. Never had. He looked at me hovering in the doorway and sighed, “I know that look.”
