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finally landed on the man beside me.
Luca.
“Malachi and you were held in the same cell,” he said after a while. “Before I was moved to the
new facility. For ‘better accommodations’ they said.”
Luca nodded. Riel.
Fuck, I was confused.
The bad thing was, it hadn’t even come to me as a surprise.
If the last two days hadn’t been enough of a warning that Luca… Riel… didn’t know who he was,
the last six months had been telling.
I’d known.
My body had known, even if my cognitive mind hadn’t made that connection.
Riel… Luca… he’d always affected me like that. Always.
“The guards gave y’all a choice. One or the other,” Hayes said softly. “They thought you were
twins. That it would break something inside of you to no longer have the other to lean on… and it did.
I watched as Malachi took his own life so you could live. Because you had Frankie waiting on you at home and he had nobody.”
I felt sick to my stomach hearing the recounting of some of his time in captivity.
Nobody should ever have to experience what Malachi, Hayes, and Luca had.
Nobody.
“When they pulled Malachi’s body out of the cell, him still bleeding out, they tossed his dog tags
at you as they took him and left. Hit you right in the face with them.” He winced. “You were so fucked up, though. I don’t even think you realized what was happening at that point.”
Riel rubbed his face.
“Luca,” he said. “For the first time in so long… God. That feels almost… right.”
I’d call him Luca from that point forward.
I didn’t want him to feel wrong anymore.
Though, I’d definitely ask his permission first.
I didn’t want him to do anything he didn’t want to do.
“How did this even come up?” I finally asked, gesturing to Hayes. “How did you know he wasn’t
Malachi? How did you know he was even going by Malachi?”
Hayes repositioned himself in his chair, then looked at Commander Mooney as if asking for
permission.
