‘Forever.’
‘No, not forever.’
‘Lachlan—’
‘I need to show you something, Kade.Tell your boss to leave.’
Kade bites down on his temper, but Riley squeezes Kade’s shoulder and says, ‘It’s fine, be careful,’ before he exits the broken room.
Kade waits until he’s gone and then turns his attention to Lachlan, who was watching his interaction with Riley very closely.
‘Show me, then.’
‘Are you and him…?’
‘Are we what?’Kade asks, pushing where he senses weakness.‘Boyfriends?’
‘Areyou?’
‘No.’Then he frowns slightly.‘I don’t really…’
‘Don’t what?’
‘Doesn’t matter.Show me the thing.’
Lachlan pulls it out of his back pocket.‘Here.’
Kade takes it with outstretched hand, index and middle fingers grasping the thin object; fully laminated, creased and worn from handling.
It’s a photograph just like Lachlan said.
It shows a sunny day on grassy ground with a younger version of Lachlan in a messed-up suit and two kids.His hair was shorter then.One of the kids is very young, little more than a toddler.She has dark brown curls and a beaming smile while in Lachlan’s arms, who is laughing while looking at her.She’s wearing a backpack in the picture.Something multicoloured with a fluffy rainbow tail.The other kid is a teenager.
His smile isn’t so bright, but he seems happy in the picture.
He’s staring at Lachlan.
Kade squints because the sunlight obscures a lot, but he thinksmaybein a certain light it looks like him.He has no photos of his younger self, only knows who he sees in the mirror.
‘It does sort of look like me, but it’s not.’
‘Jules, that’syou.’
‘I don’t see it.’Lachlan quietly takes the photograph back.‘That was them?’
‘Yeah.’
‘The little girl was Mimi?’
‘I was sure you’d recognise her,’ he says, voice hoarse.
‘I don’t.’
‘Jules—’
‘Kade.My name is Kade.And if she was really my sister, don’t you think I’d feel something?I’m sure it was painful to lose them,’ Kade says, shoring up what sympathy he has for this man given that he gunned down eighteen of his people and just took his boss hostage, ‘but I’mnotwho you think I am and it wasn’t my boss who killed them.’
Lachlan looks around, seems to have adjusted suspiciously fast.
