CHAPTER 65
The Telegraph
Harper
“I found something.” Jack sits at the table working on the hard drive. Mom gave us a list of possible passwords she knew my father used to narrow down our search. We’re all spread out through the living room again.
I’m resting against Caden on the couch as I scan through the security footage of our house, but I stand. When I walk over to Jack, he draws me down onto his lap. I’m not sure how much more I can take.
With everything happening around us, there’s a lot we still don’t know. The answers always seem to come with more questions, though.
Resting back against Jack, I stare at the screen. There’s a video queued up.
I’m not sure what he’s going to show me, but butterflies whip around my stomach. I’m scared to learn more and part of me wants to distract us all from this.
We’ve left the laptop in the other room. The mystery person agreed to work on it, but we don’t want to worry about saying anything around them we shouldn’t. Not until we’re sure we can trust them.
Luke, Caden, and Eli set their laptops to the side and come over, pulling up chairs around us. Jack lifts his gaze to Caden.
“Go get Nico. He shouldn’t be left out, and he’s probably gotten enough sleep by now.”
Caden kisses my temple and heads upstairs.
“What did you find?” I’m not sure I want to know.
Jack wraps his arm around my waist. “It’s a video. It’s set to autoplay when the hard drive boots up and the password is entered.”
“What was the password?” I turn and look up at him.
He smiles softly. “The one with your due date and favorite toy.”
I let that sit for a moment. It makes sense to use something from everyday life and one that my mom would know, but did it have special meaning to him or was it just in the rotation of passwords he used?
I don’t remember my dad. I had that brief memory flash and the picture my mom showed me. But other than that, my memories are only of my mom and me. I don’t know who he is.
What I knew of him growing up was that he left us. And because of that, I didn’t think about him. He didn’t want us anymore, so I wasn’t going to pine after him.
But him leaving us was all a lie.
A lie to protect me, but still a lie.
Knowing what I know now, I don’t blame my mom for letting me believe the lie. It kept me safe and off the radar of the powerful men who run this town. But it also leaves me feeling really confused about who my father is and what he should mean to me.
Caden helps Nico down the stairs and Eli helps situate him somewhere he can see everything.
Jack unplugs his headphones and clears his throat. “I haven’t watched this. As soon as I realized what it was, I stopped it fromplaying. Can someone record it for Jennifer in case it disappears when it finishes playing?”
“On it.”
I look over at Luke as he holds up the tablet with the camera aimed at the screen.
“You ready, sweetheart?” Jack asks.
They all watch me. What if I say no? What if we just don’t? What if this changes everything? These are secrets that have been kept for years. What will unearthing them now do?
I draw in a deep breath and release it. “Yes. Play it.”
Jack hits play and the screen fills with an image of a man. It takes me a moment to recognize him as a slightly older version of the guy in the picture. My father. Sean.
