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An odd expression crosses his face.
I pause. “Did you know him?”
Uncle Raymond looks uneasy. “Not personally.”
It’s obvious that he’s trying to hide something.
I narrow my eyes at him. “What are you not telling me?”
He sighs and rubs his hands over his face, saying miserably, “I didn’t want to have this conversation with you ever.”
I straighten up, a bad premonition in me. “What is it?”
He gives me a hesitant look. “I don’t know this for certain, all right? When your mother moved here, before she did, she contacted me and told me that she was expecting and that she needed to get away from your father. I never asked for his name because she had seemed terrified. A few months before she disappeared, I bumped into her at the grocery store and she suddenly saw someone behind me. Then she panicked as she left everything in her basket and ran. When I turned around, I saw a man behind me, staring in her direction. She never told me who he was to her but I got his name out of the motel he was staying at.”
My heart is racing in my chest as I ask, “You think Jet was my father?”
Raymond’s shoulders slump. “I don’t know. He started showing up more, and sometimes, I would see them together. She did say once that he looked different, that he’d done something to his hair. He was around for a while and then he vanished like he’d never been there, and Lily started acting like herself. When she disappeared, I was so worried that I didn’t pay much attention to other news. If I had known he had been in town then, I would have mentioned something to Egerton.”
“Do you think he’s the person Mom was warning me about?” I ask.
My uncle shrugs his shoulders, helplessly. “He’s the only one I can think about.”
“But she let him babysit me once?” I’m both confused and shaken.
“I don’t know what to tell you, Halley. They started getting close and then he up and left, and now, you’re telling me that he had been in town back then.” Uncle Raymond looks upset. “We need to go to the police with this. If Jet has been alive all this time and he’s been stalking you, we need to get you somewhere safe. We can—”
I immediately cover his hands with mine as I can see the fear on his face. “I’m as safe as I can get. Jace lives in my building. My door is locked. I’ll talk to Cameron as well about all this.”
I try to reassure him and it takes a good half hour for him to finally give in.
But as he stands up, I see the shimmer of tears in his eyes and he’s never looked older than he does right now. “I’ve already lost Lily, Angela, and Suzie. I can’t lose you too.” His old, familiar hand cups my cheek.
I grasp his wrist, smiling. “You won’t lose me.”
He isn’t smiling and I can see how he’s aged after experiencing so much loss over the years.
An email pops up on my screen, making me glance over, and I wince. “I have to finish this up, Uncle.” I squeeze his hand. “Don’t worry about me.”
“Let me drop you home,” he says, concerned. “What if—?”
“I still have a lot of work to do and I’ll get a ride with Jace.”
He doesn’t seem too happy about this and I know that now he’s going to be checking up on me every hour on the hour.
I watch him leave reluctantly and sigh, wondering whether I’ve just made things worse for myself. But I’ve never kept things from him. How could I, considering that he’s my only family left?
“You’re still here?”
Jace’s voice reaches my ears and I’m about to smile at him when I remember I’m angry with him. “I’ve got work to do,” I reply stiffly, not even bothering to look at him, reaching for the mouse. However, I’m unable to reach it as my chair is dragged away from my desk.
“No, you don’t,” he states firmly.
I clasp onto the arms as he pulls my chair across the empty floor towards his office, and I sputter out, “What are you doing?”
“My office is too quiet,” comes the unexpected response.
I glare up at him, holding onto the chair for dear life. “And that’s my problem because…?”
