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She smirked. “Oh, you’re serious. Okay. I can kind of see it. You might be on to something.”
“Yeah,” he said under his breath, distracted by whatever was running through his mind at the moment, complicating life for him.
With his stare everywhere but on Ayelish, he weakly smiled and struggled between that and a frown. “I’m mad, Aye. So. Damn. Mad.”
Her hand caressed the back of his neck, and she let him vent.
“I-I’m angry with my mama.” His lip began to quiver. “For not bein’ stronger, ya know. For not fightin’ harder… for us… for anything. I don’t want to be mad at her, but…”
He quickly swiped at a tear. “I just wish I could understand because I don’t like how it’s sittin’ in my gut, weighin’ me down. It feels real bad.”
“I can’t even imagine,” she whispered, trying to find the balance between letting him get it out and letting him know he was heard and understood.
“And I’m furious with my father.” His head bobbed. “Real furious. What kind of man leaves his family to what… fight someone else’s battles? There was a war in his own home, and we needed a hero, but he was bein’ someone else’s hero, dammit. We needed him. I… needed him. I was a kid, Aye. A fuckin’ kid doin’ a man’s job without the strength or knowledge to do it. I was a child. Achild. I should’ve been playin’ ball in the street, ridin’ my bike through lawns, and gettin’ in trouble messin’ up my Sunday clothes before church. But… I was hiding in closets. Under beds. Runnin’ to another man who wasn’t my daddy to hide Hen and our sister. Instead of bein’ a kid, that’s what I was doin’. I’m real mad about that.”
“I’m so sorry, Wit.”
“Nah. Don’t be sorry.” He bit his bottom lip to stop the quiver and cleared his throat to regain his composure. “I’ll only be mad for a minute, and then I’m gonna put this behind me and take away the gold, which is knowing exactly what and whonotto be, and exactly who I wanna be for you and that baby you’re carryin’. I’ll find the good in it. I just got to sit in the bad for a minute, ya know? Really sink into what I didn’t have so I can love what I do have that much more. I just need a minute with these feelin’s because once I’m done, I don’t want to ever feel them again. I need to leave them where they are because I’m better than this. Bigger than it. An overcomer, Aye. I won’t be a victim when I can be a victor and stand on top of my circumstance and say I beat that. That monster right there… That Goliath is beneath me, and I’m glad for it. My own hero…”
She kissed his temple and cleared her throat, trying to speak through the emotion he provoked. “I wouldn’t expect anything less. Not from you. You’re the greatest and bravest man I know, Wit Meyer, and we’re lucky to have you. All of you and all your Goliaths.”
“Yeah,” he whispered with a barely-there grin. “I’ll never let you down either. Never.”
They sat in silence, holding one another for some time. Wit said he needed to sit with his feelings for a while so he could reconcile what he could and put it behind him, so she let him. There were more tears despite the absence of words. There were smiles without punchlines. There was finally a moment of contentment when Wit relaxed his shoulders, and his body grew softer, the intense ridges fading.
“What if that other DNA is my dad or… my sister?” he asked in a relaxed tone, back to business. “Or someone else entirely? I like the idea of blood family –– Hen’s a good guy –– but if that DNA belongs to someone I may not want?”
“You think it’s your dad?” she questioned, treading carefully as not to thrust him back into the emotional pi he’d just climbed from.
Wit shrugged.
“Okay, maybe look at it this way. If it’s him, why kill the two closest things to family your children had? Who would do that?”
“A sick son of a bitch,” Wit answered. “We don’t know if the killer was just the killer or if they’re who is framing us too. It’s so hard to know what to believe or even conjure up right now. I can’t imagine why anyone would kill those families. I suppose it’s good that I can’t.”
“You don’t have to figure this out on your own,” she reminded. “Let the evidence and new clues lead you. Figure it all out when you have to… but not now.”
“I crossed paths with my brother and didn’t even know it. Thought I’d never see him again, didn’t know if he was dead or alive and here he was the whole time. I want this to be over so I can take the time to really get to know Hen. He’s real decent. I see us being friends, not just brothers, ya know?” Wit turned quick to Ayelish. “I wonder if he likes soup.”
Ayelish giggled. “You’ll have to make him some. He has something going on with Ash, so maybe you’re more alike than you know.”
“Ha. Good point. We know he has good taste, anyway. Wouldn’t that be somethin’ if they ended up together. Couple of brothers marry a couple of sisters.” Wit snickered. “Sounds like one of those sappy romance movies.”
“You like those movies,” she reminded him.
“I know I do. They’re just good entertainment. I love a good romance and happy ending. Even if they are all the same on those channels,” Wit said. “You know he’s going to be our baby’s uncle. I know the baby has a lot of those already between the O’Reilly clan and all our family here at Watermark, but this is a real blood relative from my side of the family. A real blood uncle… from me. I didn’t think I’d ever have that for our baby. Somethin’ about that feels real good. He or she will grow up with somethin’ I didn’t.”
“What’s that?” she asked.
“Hen.”
“That’s sweet, Wit. What’s with his name, by the way? Hen? That’s obviously not his real name, or you might have known it was him.”
“Right,” Wit answered. “He was adopted. Last name Hendricks. Had a good life for a bit. His family died in a terrible car accident, and he was the only survivor. Hen ended up back in the system for a while after that. No one to take him. Then he was placed with the family he’s accused of murdering. He lived with them until he aged out of the system and enlisted. He was kind of like me. High test scores, recruited, made his own path. It’s a wonder we never crossed paths then.”
“Maybe you did.” She rested her head on his shoulder.
“Yeah, maybe,” he agreed. “Anyway. These past couple of days have been a whirlwind. Feels like a lifetime has gone by.”
