Rogers grabbed his phone out of his pocket and asked, “What’s your phone number?”
I rattled off the ten digits of my personal number.
“I’ll send you a text in a few days. My first name only in your contacts.”
“Copy that.”
With that, he shook my hand and left.
Before the door closed, I glimpsed Rogers shaking Bryce’s hand.
Chapter 69
Nina
My grandmother nearly crushed my ribcage as she hugged me.
“I’m okay, Nana Sue. I promise.” My injuries would heal in less than a week. The physical ones, anyway. It’d take a lot longer for me to recover from seeing what they did to Austin.
And only God knew how long before I felt safe and stopped looking over my shoulder.
“Everyone was nice, and it was fun playing with the handsome SEAL’s dog, but they refused to tell me what was going on when I guessed you weren’t at Nikki’s.” Seeing my grandmother stompher foot while supporting herself with a rocker was enough to make me laugh.
“I’m sorry, Nana, but it was for your own good.”
“Who are they to decide?” She sounded stronger than she had when I left.
“Let me make some tea, and I’ll tell you what I can.”
“Jay, Cate, would you like some tea?” she called into the living room where they were sitting on the couch.
“No, thank you,” they answered together.
With peppermint tea in hand, I told my grandmother what I’d learned about my past. “My birth name is Nina Marie Singer.”
“Nina Marie Singer.” She let my birth name hang in the air before saying, “I prefer Nina Suzette Novak.”
Suzette was my grandmother’s full name. I smiled. “Me too, but it’s nice to know where I came from.”
“Oh,” I laughed—because who gets to say shit like this?—“and my birthday is in May, so I’m already twenty-seven.”
Shock filled Nana’s eyes. “May?”
“May thirteenth, to be exact,” I said. “But I still want to celebrate in July.” I’d always loved that my birthday was the day after Independence Day; it was like the whole country celebrated with me.
“Of course we’ll celebrate in July.” Our celebrations were less celebratory as my grandmother’s health faded, but we always found a way to make the day special.
“What did you learn about your birth parents?” she asked.
Not caring if I was allowed to tell her, I said, “They worked for the CIA and were murdered trying to bring bad guys to justice.” Truthful, yet vague enough that I probably wouldn’t get in trouble.
I took Jay and Cate not storming into the kitchen and telling me to watch what I said as a good sign.
Her pale brown eyes rounded as she gasped. “That’s terrible.”
I told her about the Fosters and Austin’s theory for how I ended up there.
My grandmother reached across the table and patted my hand. “I’m so sorry you lost both sets of parents.”
