Page 47 of Morsel

I wake up in the middle of the night to find myself alone.

I slide out of bed, and I make my way down the hall to his office. Oscar sits at his desk in the dark. He’s staring at the computer screen. I see the words “Project Sunshine” on the top, and I know he’s looking for answers.

Is he ever going to find them?

“You’ll hurt your eyes,” I say quietly.

“Who needs eyes?”

“Finding answers?”

“Not really.”

“Anything I can help with?” I ask.

He turns to me, and he holds his hand out. Instantly, I’m at his side.

“Do you know how I learned about Project Sunshine?”

“No.”

“Alex.”

“Your brother’s girlfriend?”

“Yes.”

“What’s she got to do with this?”

“Alex started working for Ryan because she needed money to pay for a private investigator,” he says.

“Sounds reasonable.” Or, you know, dramatic.

“She was looking for her brother, who went missed after they entered the foster care system.”

“Oh, shit,” I say. “What the fuck?”

“Yeah, it was bad,” he says. “Ryan started looking, and so did Alex. They sort of independently stumbled upon this project my dad worked on.”

“Sunshine,” I say.

“Sunshine.”

“So, what exactly is it? Or, was it?”

“We have such limited knowledge that it’s been really hard to find anything out,” he says. “What I know is that for a period of a couple years, my father facilitated twenty-five adoptions. Those are the ones I’ve been able to find.”

“That feels like a lot.”

“He found kids on the street, spruced them up, and sent them to live with wealthy families.”

“So, what, Alex’s brother was just one of the kids?”

“Yes,” he says.

“And did you find him?”

“Sort-of.”

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