Page 21 of Misdirection

He let out a sigh. “He came to my mom, showed her the ultrasound picture, and said she needed to pay him twenty thousand dollars.”

Olive’s lips parted with surprise. Certainly, she had heard him incorrectly.

There was no way her father would do that. No way.

Olive struggled to find the words to say, and finally blurted, “What?”

“He said otherwise I’d have to give up my dreams of going to college so I could get a job and help support my new baby. But if my family paid off your family, your parents would take you and start a new life somewhere, and I’d never have to know or worry about the child.”

Olive’s eyes grew wide. “And your mom actually paid him?”

Jason’s family had been well off, but had they had that kind of extra money lying around? She wasn’t sure.

“She did. Without telling my dad, she took everything out of her savings. She thought I had a bright future ahead of me as a doctor, just like my dad, and she didn’t want to ruin that.”

“Wow.” It was all Olive could think of saying right now.

He shrugged. “I did consider going to medical school to follow in my father’s footsteps. But I had no desire to be a doctor. Instead, I studied business. For a while, at least.”

“You didn’t finish your degree?” Olive tried not to sound overly anxious to hear his answer, to learn more about his life in the years since she’d seen him.

She’d always envisioned Jason going into medicine. Maybe not as a doctor, but possibly as a paramedic. She’d pictured him marrying someone quiet and kind—someone unlike her. Olive even figured he probably had a couple of kids by now.

He ran his hand along the side of his paper coffee cup. “No, I dropped out of college after two years and joined the military instead. Then I was offered this job with Conglomerate. It might sound like I’m just a security guard. But this company takes their safety very seriously.”

“Considering all the classified projects they’re working on, that’s no surprise.”

His shoulders appeared to soften slightly. “So, anyway, here I am. My mom didn’t tell me until two years ago about what happened. Right before she passed away from cancer.”

Olive sucked in a breath, her throat burning. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

Jason swallowed hard before nodding. “Me too. It was hard to even be mad at her for not telling me for so many years, considering the state of her health when she finally did confess. There’s part of me that still can’t believe she tried to cover up something like a baby.”

“What did you do when she told you?”

“I started looking for you, of course,” Jason said. “But it was strange. I couldn’t find anything about you or where you’d gone after you moved. It was almost like your whole family was a ghost or something.”

“Is that right?” Olive didn’t tell him that was because her family changed names wherever they went. “My family is—was—complicated.”

“They’re no longer complicated?” He narrowed his eyes in confusion.

Jason didn’t know about her family, she realized. The story about what had happened to them had largely—and surprisingly—been kept out of the national news.

Olive was glad. Glad her picture hadn’t been posted everywhere. She probably wouldn’t be doing the job she was doing now if that had happened.

She didn’t want to tell Jason about her family’s massacre now either. Didn’t want to open that can of worms. Didn’t want to feel any more of a connection with him than she already did.

He waited for her answer.

“It’s . . .” Her throat constricted. “The situation is still complicated.”

“I see.”

Olive had to change the subject to a safer topic. “I still can’t believe Beau was murdered.”

Jason’s jaw tightened. “None of us can.”

He felt guilty, didn’t he? Felt as if Beau’s death might be his fault. After all, a weapon had somehow gotten past security—and he was in charge of security. The buck stopped with him, as the saying went.

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