Page 126 of The System

Kieran pressed her hands on the ledge of the two-way mirror that she was watching this interaction through, and Carina’s hand moved to the small of her back.

“Friends, huh?” Kevin teased.

“It’s new,” Carina replied to him. “And shut up.”

Kevin laughed softly. Kieran heard their exchange but did nothing to join in because she was right. She’d been right about Theodore Samuel. He did this. He’d done all of it, and she’d figured it out.

“What do I mean? I mean my mother had me at fifteen and tried to raise me for four years, but she was addicted to a bunch of shit, and this fucking system took me away from her at four years old. Pulled me away from my mother. What the hell is that? How do you expect a kid to grow up after being taken away from his mother?”

“Did she petition to get you back?” Dylan asked.

He looked surprised by the question and said, “Yeah, of course.”

“Really? Because I looked you up before our meeting today, Theo, and I didn’t see any record of that. I did find your birth certificate, with no father listed, and her death certificate. It looks like she died of an overdose when you were about five.”

“So what? She’s gone. Whatever. My point is that I was yanked away from my mother and then shifted from home to home.”

“You were only in three foster homes, and one family tried to adopt you, Theo. That’s a pretty good situation for someone in your shoes. I know people who never settled into a home, and no one offered to adopt them. Marin May, for one.”

“Stop calling her that, or this interview is done,” he seethed.

“Okay. Marin. Marin was in a lot of homes.”

“Mine. She was in mine, and I wanted her. She didn’t want me, but I wanted her. And I didn’t want any of those fucking homes or families. I wanted my actual family to take me home.”

“But your mom was dead.”

“And I’ve got a father out there somewhere, don’t I? She didn’t knock herself up at fifteen. And her parents were dead, but where were his?”

“Maybe he didn’t know about you.”

“Yeah, well, he should have. But I didn’t get anything I wanted. I wanted Marin, and she didn’t want me back. She said we were foster siblings, but we’re not blood-related, and that kind of shit happened a lot.”

“Did it in your homes? It looks to me that in the three homes you found yourself in, the first couple had two other foster kids, and you had your own room. Those girls were sixteen and seventeen when you were only five. They tried to adopt you, but–”

“Changed their minds.”

“Yes, but only because one of them got cancer and passed away before the process could be completed. Her husband couldn’t keep up with everything. He wanted to keep you, though, Theo. He just couldn’t. He was grieving his wife.”

“What about me? Who grieved me? They tossed me back.”

“To a new home, where you lived until you were twelve. That’s when your record gets a little interesting to me. Seems like you started making trouble then, and they had to move you because they had three other fosters, and they were worried about you endangering them.”

“I didn’t hurt them.”

“No?” Dylan asked. “You didn’t walk into your foster sister’s bedroom every night to watch her sleep? You didn’t scare her one morning but did it the next night anyway?”

“What does that have to do with this stupid case and Marin? I liked watching the girls sleep. They were my age. I’m not some pervert.”

“After that, you only had one more home until you aged out. That’s where you met Marin.”

“Yeah, and I was tired of getting in trouble for wanting what I wanted and not getting it, and Marin wouldn’t give in.”

“You tried to get physical with her?”

“I tried to show her how good it can be, yeah,” he replied. “What the fuck is wrong with that? She would’ve liked it if she’d just given in. The stupid foster parents put a lock on my door and window at night. I had a bathroom in there, so they’d just lock me and my foster brother in there because they were afraid us teens would fuck each other all over the house. They locked her in, too, though; her and the other ones sharing her room.”

“So, when Marin wouldn’t put out, what did you do?” Dylan asked.

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