Page 110 of Silent Betrayal

“And why Mina couldn’t be here with us?” Tucker asks with his arms crossed on the table in front of him.

Walters stands at the end of the table and leans down, placing his palms on the surface, taking a moment to look at each of us. “Look boys, this is a bit of a delicate situation. You know we ran Simon’s DNA, and it matched what was found on all the rape victims.” I nod, knowing this information already.

“Because of how many victims were involved, I decided to have them run everything found at the scene. That included all the blood found on Simon and Helen. And we found something interesting.” He pauses, looking around at us.

“Come on, Chief, don’t leave us in suspense like this,” I grumble.

“The DNA evidence confirms that Helen is Simon’s biological mother.”

“We knew that,” Max says with agitation, leaning back in his chair, his foot tapping away on the floor. I glance at Tucker and see him flipping his lucky coin through his knuckles. Atlas’s hand is in his pocket, probably gripping his switchblade. We’re all on edge. We can feel the tension radiating from the Chief, we’re just waiting for him to get on with it.

“Some of the blood on Simon belonged to Mina. It confirmed he is her half brother, but it also revealed that Helen is not her mother.”

We knew Simon and Mina were half siblings, Paul told us that. But he said Simon wasn’t his, not that Mina wasn’t Helen’s.

“If Mina and Simon are half siblings, and Helen is his mother and not hers, that means they share the same dad,” I say, trying to piece it all together.

“Paul,” Gideon says, looking up at me with a frown. It doesn’t make sense.

“There’s more,” Walters says, making us all go quiet. “The results show an abnormally high level of genetic similarity between Simon’s maternal and paternal DNA.”

“Shit,” I say with wide eyes.

“What does that mean?” Max asks.

“It means that Simon’s biological parents are closely related… Likely full siblings,” I say, my stomach turning at the thought.

“Paul and Helen are siblings?” Max says with wide eyes.

“If Simon and Mina share a father. And it’s Paul…. Then Paul slept with his sister, Helen. And they had Simon. Then Paul slept with someone else who gave birth to Mina.”

“I don’t understand. Paul told us he had a DNA test done, that Simon wasn’t his,” Jasper says, glancing around at each of us.

“Did anybody ever ask how Paul found Simon and Mina in the forest before we got there?” I ask as I glance around at everyone.

They stare at me and their confusion quickly turns to worry. Suddenly, Atlas slams the door open and storms out of the room.

Tucker

I jog to keep up with Atlas, with Ben on my heels. We’re all silent as we exit the police station, the information we just learned circling through our heads. I couldn’t understand why Paul would lie, and I’m sure after we talk to him and get his DNA, it will all make sense.

Halfway scores the street, Atlas starts to run fast, and we pick up our pace, unsure of the threat but not willing to wait to find out, especially where our girl is concerned.

He pushes the door open so hard it bangs into the wall, making everyone in the coffee shop jump in surprise.

He turns to the right, where there’s an empty table with two coffee cups, then his hard eyes move around the room.

“They’re gone,” he growls.

“What? What do you mean,gone?” I ask, as I follow him out the door.

“I left them sitting at that table not ten minutes ago. She knew she shouldn’t leave with him.” He pauses on the sidewalk and looks up and down the street.

“I can track her, one sec… This way!” Ben yells, phone in hand, as he takes off down the street. We keep pace behind him and I pull out my phone, hitting Dom’s name.

“Tucker?” he answers instantly.

“She’s gone. Ben’s tracking her right now, she’s moving North down Rosewood,” I tell him, panting as I try to keep up with the other two while talking.

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