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Chapter Forty
Ryan
Ice froze in my veins.
It wasn’t a new thought to me, but it was the first time any of us had voiced it.
Our father might be as psychopathic as the rest of these people.
Talon nodded. “Joe’s right.”
“I know he is,” I said. “I just don’t want to think about having two biological parents that are so mentally deficient. What the hell kind of DNA is floating around in my cells? I don’t get it. What happens to people to make them this way? To do these kinds of things?”
“Ry,” Joe said, “if we could identify what makes people do these kinds of things, we'd have fixed it by now.”
“Dad had a good life,” I continued. “Great parents who loved him. A good work ethic. All the money in the goddamned world.” I shook my head. “I just don’t get it.”
“Be glad you don’t get it,” Talon said. “That means you didn’t inherit whatever nutjob gene he was carrying. I’m thankful none of us did.”
“But he was a model citizen,” I said. “Everyone knew and respected him and the Steel operation.”
“Psychopaths often seem to have great lives to outsiders,” Joe said. “Look at Wendy. She was a respected newswoman. Tom Simpson was our mayor, for God’s sake, and Larry was the city attorney. We now know the secret lives all of them were leading.”
I winced. “Are you saying that Dad had a secret life too?”
Joe sighed. “I think that’s pretty clear at this point. I’ve talked to Melanie at length about this. Many psychopaths are never caught because they’re smart and they cover up their crimes. One thing about Dad, Tom, Larry, and Wendy. None of them are dummies.”
I scraped my fingers through my hair. “I want to know my story. How I came to be.”
“You know that,” Talon said.
“No, I don’t. I don’t know for sure if Dad fucked Wendy.” Ruby’s odd theory hadn’t left my mind, and even though I’d discounted it at first, I’d been ruminating on it. “I wouldn’t put it past her to get her hands on his sperm and have herself artificially inseminated.”
“Exactly how would she get her hands on his sperm? I doubt Dad ever deposited any specimens in a sperm bank. I know you don’t want to believe it, Ry, but Dad fucked Wendy.”
“You’re right. I don’t want to believe it.”
“None of us do,” Talon said. “We all thought more of Dad than that. But he did. You’re proof of that.”
“Still, I want to look into it. I’m going to call all the sperm banks in Colorado—” I couldn’t help a raucous laugh. “Good God, what am I thinking? Dad would never donate sperm, and those records are probably sealed anyway.”
“You’re thinking you deserve an explanation for what happened,” Joe said. “But it’s time for you to accept that there isn’t one—at least not one that makes sense to rational people.”
“Hence us questioning Dad’s mental state,” Talon agreed.
I couldn’t fault my brothers’ observations, but I just wasn’t ready to accept that I came from not one but two psychopaths. How the hell had all of this happened? Dad had loved Mom…er, Daphne. Yet my mother claimed he loved her and only her. “I don’t see any evidence that Dad loved Wendy as much as she claims,” I said.
“I don’t either,” Joe said. “I wondered that from the beginning. If they were so in love, why didn’t she come into the picture after Mom died? It doesn’t make any sense.”
I let out a sigh. “We may never get all the answers. None of these people can be trusted, including our own father.”
Talon nodded. “I’ve had to accept that as well, even though I’d love to know why I had to endure the hell I endured. But the most important thing is to find Mathias and bring him to justice. We got two of them, and Wendy’s in psych lockup. Only one to go.”
“Yeah, the most elusive one.” I regarded Talon—the brother I’d always considered my hero. I didn’t want to ask the next question, but I had to. “Tal…what do you remember about the day you were taken? What do you remember about how I got away?”
Talon closed his eyes.
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