Page 87 of The Truths We Seek

My mom stops laughing instantly and snarls at me. “No we’re not, and thank the fucking lord for that.”

Her vitriol is so thick, I swear all of the oxygen is taken from the air. It takes me a second to recover from her truth, but then I ask, “So why do I think you’re my parents?”

“Because it was the only way we stayed out of jail,” my dad says, his hands shaking. I can’t tell if it’s fear, anger, or withdrawal.

“Explain,” Hunter says when I stay quiet, trying to process what that could even mean.

My mom rolls her eyes and stands. “You don’t need us both for this.”

Hunter glares at her and she stills. “Sit the fuck down or I’ll break your legs so you can’t stand again.”

She drops back to the couch, glaring at me like a petulant toddler having a tantrum.

My dad rubs his hands together, the joy on his face at the thought of getting money obvious enough ro make my stomach roll. “We took you. Your mom had money, we needed money. Except she fell when we were getting out of the house. We ran and didn’t look back. When we tried to contact her to give you back and get the money, we were told she died in the fall.” My dad pauses, glancing at Hunter before turning his attention back to me. “We were going to just leave you at the station, you were only a small thing, but the sheriff caught us. He worked out what we did and told us the only way to stay out of jail was to get clean and raise you as our own. He checked in almost daily at first, so we had to. He got us your birth certificate, a good fake, good enough to pass, and he made sure we stuck to our part of the deal.

“By the time he passed away, it was too late to just leave you somewhere, you were older, people knew you were ours, and the sheriff said he’d told someone else what we’d done, that they’d uphold his half of the deal if we didn’t keep up with ours. We never knew who, but after he passed, the threat was enough to keep us playing it safe. Then, when we realized whoever knew wasn’t coming to check on you, well... the fear was gone. But you were valuable by then. Do you know how many people paid us to watch you just sleep? It’s amazing what people will pay for.”

My stomach twists and I want to vomit.

I had no idea they did that.

What the actual fuck?

“Then when you got older, you left anyway. When you came back, Trent was with you, and he knew the truth. But he paid us to stay quiet, to leave you alone. Ignore you. Which wasn’t exactly hard. We never wanted you here in the first place.”

Hunter is practically vibrating with rage beside me, but I have more questions to ask, so I take his hand and open my mouth. “What was my mother’s name?”

“Kate something,” my mom answers. Disappointment flickers through me, but I push it down, along with every other emotion threatening me right now. Being numb is the only way I’m going to survive this. “Is that it?”

“Do you have the original birth certificate?” Hunter asks, his voice lower than usual. I guess the anger he’s holding back is to blame.

“No,” she answers, folding her arms over her chest.

“Where did you take her from?” Hunter continues questioning them while I check out a little.

“A city a few hours from here,” she answers.

“No real answers, no fucking money,” Hunter snaps at them.

“Fine, fine.” My dad answers, but I shut out the rest. I can’t do this anymore.

Hunter moving startles me back to reality, and I have no fucking idea what happened but he has my dad by the throat, dangling in the air, and a gun pulled on the woman I thought was my mom.

“Parasites like you don’t deserve to have a daughter like her, let alone to keep breathing.” His growl is followed by a gunshot and my mom drops to the ground. My dad claws at Hunter’s arm, but in his frailty, he’s no match for my blond god of a man.

Part of me knows I should be horrified, should react somehow to what’s happening. But I don’t.

I have nothing but numbness.

They let people watch me while I slept.

“Did you let them do anything but watch?” I croak.

Hunter loosens his grip just enough that my dad can suck in air to answer me. “You’ll never know.”

His eyes light up with such delight at the thought that that might haunt me, and I’m sure it will, but I know he won’t tell me.

“End it,” I say to Hunter, my voice empty and hollow.

---