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"I'm sorry about that, and I want to apologize for running out on you this morning."
"Why did you?" I asked.
"I couldn't stand the look of betrayal in your eyes." He paused. "It's still there. I never wanted you to find out you weren't my daughter, Brynn. I shouldn't have said anything to you."
"It's the secret, the lie, that bothers me more than the fact you're not my biological father. I can see why you didn't say anything when I was younger, but I'm twenty-seven, and it was long past time to tell me something that important."
"Your mother never wanted you to know. I couldn't imagine breaking that promise after she died. You'd already lost her. I couldn't let you lose me, too."
I stared back at him. "I feel like we lost a big part of you when Mom died. You were never the same after that. Maybe you didn't want to tell us that you weren't our father, but I feel like deep down, it played a role in our relationship. You might have tried to stay closer if we were your blood. But Mom left you with two kids who weren't yours."
"You were mine," he said fiercely. "And I've always loved you. I just didn't know how to show it. Your mother was better at that. She was loving and nurturing. I always felt awkward and uncomfortable. I never said the right thing, and I knew I wasn't the father you wanted me to be." He let out a breath and sat down on the sofa.
Vicky sat down next to him, putting a comforting hand on his leg.
I took the chair across from them, thinking that this was the way our relationship had played out since they'd gotten married—the two of them together and me on the opposite side.
"When did you get here?" I asked Vicky.
"Your father called me this morning, and I got on the first plane out."
"Have you spoken to the police yet?" I asked.
"I spoke to Inspector Greenman briefly," Vicky replied. "But he wants to have a longer conversation at some point."
My gaze moved to my father. "What about you?"
He shook his head. "Not yet. Did you tell him you saw me?"
"No," I admitted. "But you need to call him and tell him exactly what happened. I don't know why you're afraid to do that. You didn't shoot, Mom, did you?"
"Of course I didn't shoot her," my father said vehemently. "I've never shot a gun in my life."
"Then you shouldn't be afraid to talk to the police."
"I slapped your mother the day before she was shot. If that was caught on camera anywhere, I'm going to be a suspect," he said. "I don't want to get railroaded because of a fight. I shouldn't have hit her, but my God, what she did to me—the lies, the deception—I had a right to be angry." He paused, his gaze narrowing on my face. "I don't know why you're not angry, too, Brynn."
"Oh, I'm angry. I have been through every emotion there is since I found out she was alive. I can't believe she left us. She said she did it to protect us. But there had to have been another way."
"When did she say that?" he asked.
"She was awake for a few minutes this morning, but she didn't tell me much except that she'd had to disappear to save our family from some danger she was in."
"Is she going to be all right? Does she know who shot her?"
"Mom said she doesn't know who would shoot her, but I don't believe that's true. While we were talking, she got agitated, and the doctor sedated her. I can't talk to her again until tomorrow."
"What kind of danger was she in?" Vicky asked.
"I don't know. I think her whole life was a series of secrets. Mom wasn't who she said she was. She got into trouble when she was young, and it followed her to our family, and then came back around now." I paused. "Did either of you know that she had a sister?"
"What?" my dad asked in surprise. "No way. She was an only child."
"She wasn't. She has a twin sister, an identical twin sister."
"That's unbelievable," my father said. "How did you find out, Brynn?"
"I ran into my aunt at the hospital. She said her name is Rachel. She didn't have much else to say, except alluding to the fact that they were in danger and had been for a long time. I thought we were going to talk it all out, but she ran out on me, too. Seems to be what people do these days."
