Page 56 of The Inquirer

She reached over and put her hand on mine. “I understand why you were angry when you thought I was using them.”

“It’s funny.” I turned my hand and linked our fingers together. “I feel more at home here, with them, than I ever did with my family. More myself.”

“I get that.” She rubbed my fingers with her thumb. “When I moved in with Kaimi and Rose, it was the first time I’d felt like I was home since before my dad died.”

We were both quiet after that, and after finishing the last of my breakfast, I got up to put the plate in the sink. It was time to change the conversation so that we weren’t both thinking about how the places we each called home were eight hundred miles apart.

I’d looked up the mileage during the flight to New York for Kaimi’s wedding.

That wasn’t important right now, though. We had other things to discuss.

“I meant to come see you today.” I poured myself a second cup of coffee, then put the pot back on the warmer when she placed her hand over her mug, indicating that she’d had enough. “I found a few things that I think you’ll find…interesting.”

“Interesting?”

“I moved it all over to the couch so we could eat at the table.” I took her empty plate and put it with mine, continuing my explanation as I went. “I was at my sister’s house yesterday, watching the kids while everyone else was at the hospital and–”

“Shit!” Nyx cut in, an embarrassed expression on her face. “I completely forgot about your nephew! How is he?”

“Good,” I said with a smile. “He has to stay in the hospital longer than he would have if they’d caught it before his appendix burst, but he’ll make a complete recovery and should be home around Halloween.”

“I’m glad to hear that,” she said, sitting down next to me on the couch. “If something like that happened to Rose, I’d be a mess.”

“Somehow, I doubt it.” Off her look, I added, “You’d be the one threatening the doctor with loss of limb if they didn’t take care of her.”

She laughed. “Yeah, that does sound about right.” She leaned against me for a moment. “Now, back to what you were saying.”

I was tempted to put my arm around her, but we’d probably get distracted if I did that, so I stuck with simply telling the story. I explained about the boxes and how I’d brought them home. I’d put everything into a pile in chronological order rather than the order I’d found them in, and I handed over each piece as I explained what it said and what I was filling in with educated guesses.

When I finished, I stopped talking, and we sat in silence as she went through everything more closely. It was hard not to watch her face as she read, study the nuances of her expressions. I knew her well enough to know that sort of attention would make her uncomfortable, so I simply sat and waited, looking at nothing.

“Well, damn.”

“If what’s there wasn’t so fucking awful, I might’ve laughed at that response.” I rubbed the back of my neck. “I plan on using what’s there to expose my family’s lies, but I figured your clients could use it too.”

She looked more than a little bit dumbfounded. “It definitely answers some questions.”

“And brings up some other ones.” I rubbed my face with both hands. “Like how my however many greats uncle probably fathered a child with a slave.”

“I have to double-check with my client to give any names, but I can tell you that one of the things I was supposed to be looking for was a way to get DNA from a Traylor to be compared to DNA we already have.”

Shit. It sounded to me that if they’d sent her looking for my family’s DNA, then the odds were in their favor that they’d match.

She licked her lips. “If you’re willing to do it, I’ll reach out to them.”

“I will.”

She gave me a strange look I couldn’t read. “Shouldn’t you talk to your family first?”

I scoffed. “They’d just try to cover it up. Best let the lawyers handle it.”

“Oh shit.” Even though we’d just woken up, Nyx sounded tired. “The lawyers.”

I turned toward her so that our knees touched. “That doesn’t sound good.”

“Yeah.” She sighed. “Yesterday, I started looking into the law firm that hired me, and it turns out they’re A. Check & Associates.”

“Check? Shit. That’s the name of my family’s lawyer.” I didn’t like the direction this was going.

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