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“Uh huh.”
Tully gets busy typing in her name and a second later, she’s pausing. “I can’t do it. I’m too nervous. I mean, Rivers’ family has been such a mystery since the day I met him. His parents are these fictional characters that I’ve built inside my mind and what if it’s worse than I assume?”
“From the way Rivers would shield us all from his home life, I’m already assuming the worst, and besides, this is my biological mother,” I laugh. “If any of us should be nervous right now, it should be me.”
“Shit. You’re right,” she says, taking a breath and continuing with her search.
The search must come up on her phone as a seriousness comes over her. Her brows draw down and I watch her in silence as her thumb begins scrolling through the search results.
Tully’s thumb stops and the concentration on her face doubles but there’s also a hint of fear and curiosity, especially when her brows pull down even further.
Her mouth starts moving as she reads and not a second later, she sucks in a sharp breath. “What is it?” I demand as Noah walks around the coffee table so he can read over her shoulder.
His brows draw down too.
Shit.
“Tully,” I demand. “Tell me.”
Tully glances up before scrunching her face with a cringe, but hidden within her eyes is a devastation that I’m not quite prepared for. Tully’s mouth opens as she goes to explain what she found before thinking better of it and turning the screen to me. “Here,” she says. “It’s better if you read it yourself.”
I take the phone from her waiting fingers as I glance up at Noah, but all I find is a solid wall that’s been slammed down behind his eyes, refusing to let me in. I drop down on the couch to read and Noah walks around to sit beside me with his hand, supportively resting on my thigh.
Taking a deep breath, I decide to rip it off like a Band-Aid.
My eyes drop to the screen and the first thing I see is a startling headline – ‘Prostitution Ring Bust a Success– Gina Rivers Jailed’
What the fuck?
Noah’s hand squeezes my thigh, sensing the way my body stiffened with tension. I read through the article, taking in every single word before starting from the top and reading through again.
She was sentenced to fifteen years behind bars after she was exposed to be the leader of a prostitution ring. Twenty girls were working for her and three of them being underage. She even had a few guys willing to do the dirty work. Gina was brought down by a tip made by her twelve year old son, Samuel, which happened six years ago. “Is this…this couldn’t. I mean, are you sure this is the right woman?”
“How many Gina Rivers are you going to find living in Haven Falls?” Noah murmurs. “Everything fits. Her name, the son who’d now be eighteen, the reason Rivers was so desperate to keep us out all this time.”
“But,” Tully cuts in. “His name. It said the son’s name is Samuel. I don’t remember ever hearing that name.”
“Yeah, but…when have we ever heard a name other than Rivers?” Noah questions. “It’s possible.”
I know he’s right but I desperately don’t want to believe him. “But that means that this woman is my mother and Rivers is actually my…brother.”
“I guess so,” he tells me. “How are you…?”
“I don’t know,” I murmur, leaving the article and searching for more.
Tully comes and sits on my other side and before I know it, Noah’s phone is out as well and the three of us desperately try to connect the dots.
I don’t know how I feel about the fact that my biological mother is the type of woman to be involved in that shit and I have a feeling my father has no idea about it, otherwise, he never would have given me her name. Hell, he never would have even told me about her.
“Woah,” Noah suddenly says, drawing me away from Tully’s screen. “I think I just found a birth certificate for Samuel A. Rivers.”
“What? Really?” I grunt, peering over to see the screen of his phone.
Noah zooms in on the screen so we can all see it better. “Yeah, check this out,” he tells me before scrolling over all the details. “When was Rivers; birthday?” he murmurs, seeing the birth date of this Samuel.
“March third,” Tully supplies.
Noah scrolls down and sure enough, March third is right there on the screen, confirming exactly what I’ve been wondering for the past few weeks. Rivers is my brother or at least half-brother and so far, I don’t know what to think about that.
My mind is completely blown. A few months ago, I was an only child and now I have a little sister whose mom is a junkie and now a big brother whose mom is a criminal. Fucking great. What does this say about me? Hell, my mom is that criminal.
