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Last Chance
WINTER
“What?” Haze’s voice echoes in my head. I only realize how tightly I’m squeezing the Polaroid when it shrinks into a crumbled ball. I can’t move a muscle, just staring at the bloody man in front of me.
“This isn’t happening.” I step backward.
This guy is not my dad.
Haze’s sister’s killer cannot be my biological father.
The man gives me a faint smile, his teeth painted with blood.
“What the hell is going on?” Haze turns to me.
“I…” No words seem appropriate for this moment.
“Did you just call him Dad?” Haze’s horrified.
I try and regain my composure.
“No.” I chase my breath. “This is a mistake. He’s… He’s not my dad.” I close my eyes while I say it. Like I’m hoping it’ll shield me from the look on Haze’s face when I tell him. “A few days ago, I… I went to see my mom. I asked her about my biological father. She gave me a picture.”
I hand him the wrinkled photograph.
Silent, he scans the picture.
One second is all it takes.
I can see it in his eyes: how fast he re
alizes what I’d go to the end of the earth to deny.
“But… she said his name was Mike. This doesn’t make any sense. He can’t be my dad,” I convince myself.
“She’s right,” Marcus cuts in.
Haze’s furious eyes dart back to him.
“My name isn’t Marcus. It never was.”
None of us speak, blink, move.
This is too much.
“I was nineteen when I started working for the organization. Just like your boyfriend here.” He motions to Haze with his chin. “They got my name wrong. Thought I said Marc and just assumed it was short for Marcus. I didn’t correct them, and it stuck with me.”
“No.” Haze shakes his head. “There’s no fucking way. Out of all the people in the world, you’re… Fuck.” Haze jams his fist right through the shitty hotel wall, and I yelp, eying the hollow hole he left behind. “This isn’t real. You… You can’t be her dad.” He holds his head in his hands and paces around the room obsessively as if he’s waiting for another explanation to come to him.
“I can’t believe you’re finally here. In front of me.” Marcus—shit, Mike—smiles at me, and it sends Haze over the edge.
“You’re not her fucking dad!” Haze shouts at the top of his lungs and grips Mike’s collar. He takes a powerful swing at him, near having a mental breakdown. Mike collapses onto the floor with a loud thud.
“How do you know about the organization? How do you even know we were dating? You said you didn’t know me!” I’ve never seen Haze this furious. “You’re going to explain everything. Right fucking now. Am I making myself clear?”
Mike wipes blood from his mouth and leaps off the ground with a groan of pain.
“The day you came looking for me, I knew the organization had sent you. It was the only thing that made sense. But I just figured you worked for them. Then, I found out you were Winter’s boyfriend. I didn’t know you were that little girl’s brother, I swear.”
