Page 143 of Lee

As soon as his mom saw him, concern filled her face.

“Are you still not feeling well?” she asked as she cupped his face in her hands.

It didn’t surprise him that she was aware that he’d been sick. He probably had Janessa or Charli to thank for that. Still, he wasn’t upset.

“I’m feeling better.” Which was the truth.

Since his conversation with Rori, he hadn’t felt as sick. It wasn’t that he didn’t have moments when he thought too much about his past, which triggered the sick feeling inside him.

He still had them, of course. But unlike that first week, the moments eventually passed. His sleeping still wasn’t great, but the nightmares didn’t wake him as frequently.

“I had to talk to you and Dad,” he said, needing to just jump in before he lost his nerve.

“Sure, sweetheart,” his mom said. “Let’s go to the family room.”

The three of them made their way through the house to the cozy room at the back of the house. His parents settled into their favorite chairs—a recliner for his dad and a glider for his mom—while Lee chose to sit on the loveseat facing them.

“What’s going on?” his dad asked, his brow furrowed.

Lee stared down at his hands, uncertain of where exactly to start. “I hired a private detective to find information about my life before I came to live with you.”

His parents exchanged a look before his dad cleared his throat and said, “Did he find what you wanted him to?”

Lee gave a humorless laugh. “Well, no. I doubt anyone would have wanted to find out what I did.”

The silence stretched out as his parents held what appeared to be a silent conversation. Lee just waited because now he knew without a shadow of a doubt that they knew. Otherwise, they would have been asking him what the detective had found.

“We hoped you’d never learn the truth,” his dad finally said, a resigned look on his face.

“Why didn’t you tell me when I asked?”

“Now that you know the truth, surely you can understand why we didn’t want to do that,” his dad said.

“We love you, Lee,” his mom added. “And the last thing we wanted as your parents was for you to be hurt. We felt that the knowledge of your past would be detrimental to you.”

Lee couldn’t say that they’d been wrong. Discovering the truth had been a horrible, horrible thing, and he could have happily lived the rest of his life without knowing what he knew now.

“How did you end up with me?” Lee asked, as there were still questions in his mind about how it had all unfolded.

“One of the doctors treating you approached us about taking you in,” his mom said. “He’d been a long-time friend of your grandfather’s, and he felt it would be beneficial for you to be with people who had medical experience. They also knew we had previously adopted Jay and Janessa, so they figured our family would be a good fit. And as far as we were concerned, we were the perfect fit. We loved you from the moment we saw you.”

Lee took a shaky breath, emotion filling his heart. “Who all knows that I’m still alive?”

“Only a handful of people,” his dad said. “Though I guess there are two more now with you and the detective knowing. Will he keep this secret?”

Lee nodded. “He understands the necessity of keeping it quiet. He also told me what I needed to do to protect that information.”

“I hope he will, because it’s important that the wrong people don’t find out.”

“Who all does know?” Lee asked.

“A detective, a judge, a psychiatrist, the doctor, and your grandmothers.”

“My grandmothers?”

His dad nodded. “They were the ones who broached the idea of you going into hiding with the detective and the doctor in charge of your care.”

“Wow. I figured none of my biological family knew.”

---