Page 62 of Bound By Secrets

“So, are you going to fill me in, or do I have to guess what this is about?”

Kat is the first to recover, her shocked expression forming into a scowl. She steps back, planting herself in front of the wooden desk that’s pressed against one of the cream walls.

“There’s nothing for you to know.”

I scoff. “Okay, so why is it that you need the twins up here? What do they need to check out?”

Her eyes widen for a split second before she narrows them and glares at her brother. My eyes slide over to Nate, and I arch a brow. He looks back and forth between me and his twin.

“Well, uh, we were just talking about, uh, about-”

I purse my lips to stop myself from laughing at his nervous stuttering.

“Oh, for goodness sake, we found something, but we didn’t want to tell anyone just yet until the twins came to look at it,” Kat blurts out, cutting off her brother.

“What did you find?” I ask, genuinely curious.

“Some paperwork.”

“Great, a vague answer,” I drawl, rolling my eyes. “If it’s just some paperwork, then why do you need the twins to come and check it out. Why not go and get Callie?”

When neither of them answer me, I lean back against the door and cross my arms over my chest. “I’ll happily stay right here until one of you tells me what it is you’ve found, or better yet, I can go downstairs and pull Callie away from her little flirting session with Brad.”

Kat huffs and steps away from the desk. “Okay! I’ll tell you, but let me make it clear that I’m only telling you because I believe you’ll want to keep Callie from being upset whilst she’s in a vulnerable state.”

She bends down, reaching underneath the desk and pulling something out. Her eyes scan over the few papers she’s holding, and then she gasps, darting her gaze up to meet mine.

“What is it?” Nate asks, stepping over to her. I find myself moving forward as well until we’re all huddled in some kind of circle. She pushes the paper towards us, and Nate snatches it from her hand. He separates the three papers and hands me two that are stapled together.

I look down at the document, recognising it as a birth certificate.

It’s Cameron’s.

Derek’s name is under the section that’s titled Father, but it’s not Clarissa’s name written beneath the title of Mother.

My stomach twists.

“Look at the next page,” Kat whispers.

I flip the paper over and realise they’re adoption papers.

For Cameron.

Clarissa adopted Cameron on his fifth birthday.

That’s the day she married Derek.

I’ve heard her speak about that day in the past when we were kids. She’d often tell us all about the joint celebration, a small birthday party for Cameron in the day, and then an evening wedding. She never mentioned that it was also the day that she adopted a child.

I hand the documents back to Kat and then look over at the paper that Nate’s holding.

“I think they were right,” he tells me, thrusting the papers closer to me. “That’s Callie’s birth certificate and Derek’s name isn’t on there. It’s blank.”

“We need to tell her,” I state, tossing the certificate on the floor and walking towards the door.

“No! We need to think about this before we do that.” Kat rushes past me, blocking the door. “We all know she’s fragile at the moment. I know she won’t admit it, but we all know it. We can’t drop a bomb on her like this.”

“What she wouldn’t like is to find out that we’re keeping something from her,” I snap. “She already struggles with trusting people but she chooses to trust us, so we have to tell her. Callie’s strong. She can handle it.”

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