Page 36 of Secrets

Millicent walked into the room and scanned the faces, smiling and nodding. When she reached the one in the far corner, Kegger on one side of him, Pork on the other, she nearly fainted.

“Wh-what is happening? What did you do?” she stammered.

“Babe, let them explain,” said Trevon.

“Explain? You knew? You knew about this?” she screamed.

“Millie,” said her brother softly.

“No! No, you don’t get to call me that!”

“I’m sorry,” he said, shaking his head. “Millicent. Please. Give me thirty minutes to tell you everything. Thirty minutes to tell you the truth of it all, and if you still hate me, these men will return me to prison.”

“You took him out of prison?” she yelled.

“Millicent, honey, we need you to remain calm,” said Erin. “I know this is a shock, but I think you want to hear what your brother has to say. Just give him the time he’s asking for. You have nothing to lose. You’re safe. All these men are here to be sure of it.”

Jay raised his wrists, zip-tied for security.

“I won’t hurt you, Millie, I mean, Millicent. I won’t. Not ever again. I’m damn sorry I ever had to.”

“Had to? You enjoyed it,” she sniffed.

“Millicent, please, baby,” said Irene. “I’m askin’ you to take a seat and listen to the boy.”

Something about Irene’s pleading stuck with Millicent, and she finally nodded. She was pissed at Trevon for knowing and not telling her, but if all these people thought it was the right thing to do, she would listen.

“Alright.Thirty minutes.”

Millicent stared at her brother, unsure of whether to believe him or not. It made sense. All of it made sense, and yet she couldn’t understand why Tick would want to harm her.

“Millicent, I have no reason to lie to you now. None. I’m going to either die in prison or our mother is going to kill me. Either way, I’m a dead man, and I’m okay with that. Just knowing that you’re protected makes me feel better.”

“She and Dad worked together. They were assassins for the FBI,” she whispered.

“That about sums it up,” he nodded. “I know I hurt you, Millicent. A part of me died every time I hit you, but sometimes, you have to do the things you hate to get to what you really need to make happen. I wanted to help you get away so many times. I was the one who told Fowler you were in the shed. I didn’t know that he knew about everything back then.”

“He knew? Is that why they got to the safe house?”

“That’s why, honey,” he said. “I’m so sorry. I was hoping to keep you safe and help you get away. Before I knew it the whole damn thing went wrong. Tick and Dad were dead, and you’d disappeared.”

“It’s funny,” she said quietly. “Something inside of me said not to trust Fowler completely. It’s why I never told him exactly where I was.”

“That’s the whole story, Millicent. All of it. I don’t expect forgiveness from you. I don’t deserve it. I just want you to live a full life, and that can’t happen as long as Mom and Fowler are alive. I don’t know how many other men at the bureau are involved, but I would guess quite a few.”

“We’ll worry about that,” said Gaspar. “Your mother is still near the prison. We expect that she’ll be checking in on our team at the hotel, suspicious of what happened to Jay.”

Millicent stood from the table and looked at her brother. She remembered all the times that he appeared to be staring at her, like he hated her. But one memory, one lone memory, kept creeping into her thoughts. She slowly walked around the table toward him.

“I was sick when I was thirteen. I’d started my period, and at the same time, somehow contracted pneumonia. Daddidn’t want to take me to the doctor. I woke up in the middle of the night, and Tick was trying to get you to move away from the door. He said he’d take over, and you refused. You slept outside my door the whole night. You got me water and juice. You kept giving me the meds even though I thought you were poisoning me.”

Jay laughed, tears streaming down his cheeks.

“I knew what Tick would do to you. You were out of it, and he would have taken advantage of that.”

“You protected me.”

“I tried, Millicent. I swear to God, in my own strange way, I tried. I’m not much older than you are, and I just didn’t know who else to trust. I should have found someone, anyone that would have helped me, but Dad had everyone in his back pocket.”

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