AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Eight
Katie
After the detective dropped his bombshell and Jackson’s dad, uncle, and granddad showed him the error of his ways, Jackson wrapped me in the blankets and pulled me against his chest. I lay there for God only knew how long, trying my best to wrap my head around having siblings and not being allowed to know them. And even more that my mother knew and didn’t tell me.
The detective asked if I knew my mother knew I had siblings. He didn’t ask if my dad knew. Could my father have had two children he’d never known about? How was that possible?
Twins.
My siblings were twins. Now that some of the shock had worn off, I thought about timeframes. I laughed when I ordered birthday presents for them both this year because I found it funny that they were born on the same day.
The first time I’d seen them together was in that alley in New York, and the trauma of it all had blinded me to the fact thatthey resembled one another. It wasn’t until I overheard their conversation that their similarities clicked for me, and then, it was colored by all that Jackson and I were going through.
“How could I have been so blind?” I whispered.
“Katie…darlin’, you weren’t blind. You trusted the people who were supposed to care for you, whether it was family or staff. You’re sweet and lovin’, and you expect the best from those around you. That doesn’t make you blind,” Jackson murmured against my head.
“How could I not have picked up on the resemblance? They’re twins, Jackson. At least the birthdates on their licenses say they are. Maybe that’s another lie. I remembered laughing with Marcie about it when we bought their birthday gifts.”
“Katie, that still doesn’t make you blind, darlin’.”
A knock at the door before it opened ended our conversation. I looked over my shoulder and watched my parents enter the room, finally making another appearance since before Jackson had been taken into surgery.
“Hey, Kit Kat,” my dad said as he approached the bed.
My mom kept her eyes averted and her arms folded over her chest. I stiffened as Conrad approached Jackson and me and said, “Stop.”
Conrad stopped dead in his tracks while Mom’s eyes flashed to my face, then back to the window. I stared at them. I was over their bullshit. My mother took me from my father at an early age, and I never again knew stability. We moved sporadically, and so many “uncles” and “dads” were introduced to me throughout my life that I couldn’t remember them all. My dad,as a police chief, should’ve been and could’ve been a stabilizing influence in my life, failed to make any effort to be one, except a few times a year.
“Katie…” Conrad called my name.
“No. You will both stand there and keep your mouths shut until I am ready to say my piece,” I huffed angrily.
I pulled from Jackson’s embrace and sat up. Jackson did the same, and we slid easily into the position we’d been in while the detective had been here.
Finally, I took a deep breath and began, “I have spent my life trying to gain your love, acceptance, and nurturing. Conrad, you managed it in short bursts, but then once I was back at Roxy’s, it was out of sight, out of mind. Roxy, you pulled me out of a stable home and bounced me across the country, hopping from one man’s bed to another, from one town to another. I don’t know what you were searching for, but I hope you found it, and it was worth the trauma I endured because of it.”
Jackson’s arm moved from before me to wrap around me while his opposite hand grasped mine, entwining our hands together. The strength and steadfastness of the man beside me pushed me to continue.
“I’ve always wanted a large family—a mom and dad and even a couple of siblings, but I got chaos and loneliness instead. But now, I find out I had a couple of siblings, and one, if not both, of you knew they were out there, and no one bothered to fucking mention them to me even once. Did you know they were put in foster care? That while in care, they were abused, physically and sexually?”
Conrad turned and glared at Roxy, who withered under his gaze. He turned back to me and Jackson. “I had no idea. I don’t know how much you know about your family history, how your mother and I met, or how you came to be, but if you are willing to listen, I will tell you everything I know.”
I looked at Jackson, then steeled myself for a conversation I most likely wouldn’t like. I nodded, and Conrad sat down.
Roxy scoffed, “Well, I’m not leaving while you try to paint me as a demon like you always have.”
Conrad stared her down as he growled, “I have never hit a woman in my life, but you and your shit in the last couple of days have pushed me to the brink, so if you’re smart, you should probably put a sock in it.”
Roxy flounced over to a chair and flopped down into it. She still hadn’t looked at me except for that brief glance where she didn’t even meet my eyes.
I shook my head at her antics. I refused to cave into her juvenile behavior. She was a grown woman and needed to learn to act like it.
“Well? I’m waiting,” I said.
Conrad sighed. “I was a beat cop when I met a girl named Rae. She was a senior at UW. I’d been dispatched to a college party, and she was there trying to get her roommate to go home since the girl was so drunk she could barely stand up. Rae was sweet and beautiful and so damned good. We began dating, and things were going well. A few months later, Rae told me her sister was coming from Tennessee to live with her. She was so happy to have some family close by. She’d told me several times how homesick she’d been since she moved away for school.”
My dad paused, looking at my mother. The look on his face was hate-filled, tinged red with rage.
