Page 49 of Tear Me Down
“Maybe they moved here to be closer to him? Could’ve tried to be better parents after abandoning Zeke? I don’t know, D. There’s a lot of coincidences, and they have the same blood type—O positive. So do Mark and Jenny. Plus, have you seen them stand next to each other? They have similar features. I mean, it wasn’t as apparent as it is now that I see this, but I did always think they looked alike.”
“Well, I’m definitely not attracted to Zeke.”
“You sure? You know Zeke is the type to swing in all directions,” he jokes, and while I know he’s trying to lighten the mood, now isn’t the time.
“How confident are you about this?” I ask him seriously.
“Pretty damn sure.” He nods gently.
“Well, we need to be absolutely fucking certain before I go and blow up their lives with this.”
“I could hack into the DCFS files again. See what exactly they have on Zeke, but I'm not sure if they’ll have those files digitalized yet.”
“Let’s try it anyway.” I watch as he clacks away at his keyboard, retracing my steps from the time I hacked into Ashia’s files, and it’s not long before he’s in. He types Zeke’s name, but we’re shocked to see nothing comes up. “Try Micah Carpenter.” He types again, and then the information pops up almost immediately, clear as day and staring back at us.God, he’s right.There’s scanned notes and forms about how he was found abandoned at the hospital, how they had all of his medical files transferred over from Tennessee, and how Zeke’s parents adopted him and changed his name. “How did Mark and Jenny not get jail time for this?”
“Back then? He was their son. What did it matter if they took him from some small po-dunk hospital? Tennessee was riddled with drugs back then, they probably had too much to handle. I bet a lot slipped through.” We remain silent for a few minutes and let the room fester with unspoken confirmations. This is going to be hard on Zeke, but this might finally be the final straw for Ashia. Just when she thought she had gotten rid of her parents for good, and lost her bestfriend over it, she has to find this out? I can’t possibly keep this from her, but I’m not sure I’ll be able to protect her from the heart break that comes with it.
“They’re siblings,” I finally say aloud, cutting through the fog like a knife and diving in headfirst.
“Yeah, they are.”
I pace for a moment, dreading the rest of the evening, but I know what I have to do.
“Take Zeke’s DNA analysis and run it against Ashia’s. I want confirmation and have it sent to me before I get to the house.”
“I started it the moment I found this, it’ll be done by then,” he says as I storm out, needing to take the long way home to think this out.
I pause outside of the garage door, taking a deep breath and steeling my spine. God, I don't know how they're going to take this. It sounds crazy. What are the chances that out of all of the men in this city, Zeke is her brother? Out of all the places they could’ve moved to, or all of the other options when it came to abandoning Zeke, why this? The saying ‘it’s a small world’ is an understatement in this moment, but now that we know for sure, it’s time to bring it to light—though I feel like I’m taking that illumination and shining it on Ashia’s heartache to broadcast it to the world.
I’m failing her once again, unable to protect her from the things that I can’t see, allowing spirits to continue torturing her from a realm that I can’t reach. All I want to do is silence them for her—to heal her, but every time she gets remotely close, there’s something else to drag her back down.
How is she going to take this? Knowing that Zeke escaped them and she couldn't? Imagining how her life would have been with someone to protect her? Realizing that she never had to be alone, but her parents stole that from her as well?
On the flip side, how ishegoing to feel? Knowing that he came from such terrible people? It will only be a matter of time before he asks questions, and worst of all, he’ll ask her. He’ll want to know all of the terrible things they put her through, and she’ll have to relive them all again—a play by play of her darkest moments for his curiosity.
Perhaps I should’ve talked to him first, but if I pulled him aside after getting pulled away myself, she’ll only worry more. Her emotions are already all over the place, and the last thing she needs is something to build up theanticipation before the blow. I suppose if there were any time to rip the band-aid off, it would be now.
I walk inside to see Zeke and Ashia in the kitchen talking. Fuck, they do look alike. They both have dark hair and higher cheek bones—the only difference is their eye color. Obviously Ashia has softer features, but after seeing pictures of Mark and Jenny, I can see he definitely got his mother's green eyes, while she shares that melanin trait with their father—though her eyes beam to life while their father’s dulled over time and abuse.
“Hey, handsome.” I look over at Ashia walking up to me before she jumps into my arms, wrapping her legs around my waist and holding on tightly. I hold her just as fiercely, like it’s been months since we’ve seen each other and not only a couple of hours. I can feel the relief in her limbs, and it makes me feel like a fraud, because she has no idea that I’m about to turn her world upside down. While I know this isn’t my fault, I feel like I should’ve protected her from this somehow. Especially after last week when she finally believed that her past was completely behind her, only to be proven wrong.
“Hey, little wolf.” I kiss her softly, trying to convey my love and apologies before we even get started. She pulls back, eyeing me questioningly like she knows something is wrong.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah…” I hesitate, not wanting to lie, but I know that everythingwillbe okay. I’ll make sure of it, no matter what it takes. “We need to talk,” I tell her softly as I brush my thumb across her lightly heated cheek—most likely from her anxiety.
“Okay? Well, dinner’s almost ready, and I told Zeke he could invite Tay over. Do you want to go upstairs?” she asks softly, and I don’t miss the tinge of fear in her voice—breaking my heart.
“It’s no big deal, Ash, I'll go outside and wait for Tay,” Zeke says as I timidly stand Ashia back on her feet.
“Actually Zeke, I need you to stay.”
He narrows his eyes at me, confused as to why I would need to talk to them both at the same time.
“What’s wrong, baby?” she asks me as she puts her hand on my chest and runs her soft hands over the fabric of my shirt.
“Why don't you two sit down?” I say gently to her as I lead her to the bar stools at the kitchen island, directing her to sit on the opposite side of Zeke as I round the corner to stand on the other edge.
