“Ryan, your life hasn’t been a lie. I know you’re still dealing with the fact that you have a different mother than your brothers and sister. But you will—”
He placed two fingers over my lips. “I’m not talking about that. Am I used to it yet? Hell, no. But I will deal with that. What I found out today is, in a strange way, even more important to me. It changes everything I’ve known as truth for the last twenty-five years.”
Twenty-five years? Ryan was thirty-two years old, same as me. What could he have found out that changed the past twenty-five years of his life? He would’ve been seven years old.
He’d been seven years old when Talon was taken.
I gently removed his hand from my mouth. “What is it, Ryan? What are you talking about?”
“For the last twenty-five years, my brother Talon has been my hero. And now…”
“And now…what?”
“My psychotic mother. I went to see her.”
I knew that, of course. I’d told him about the e-mail I got from Wendy.
“What happened?”
“I asked her to tell me the truth. I asked her to help me understand.” He threaded his fingers through his unruly hair. “I’ll never understand, Ruby. I’ll never understand how or why she could’ve done the things she did.”
“That’s a good thing,” I said. “I’ll never understand why my father has done the things he’s done either. I don’t want to understand. I don’t want my mind to work in that warped way.”
“I know that. I agree with you. But what I found out today changes everything.”
“I can assure you that nothing has changed,” I said. Perhaps he found out that Wendy was more than any of us had bargained for. That she was the mastermind behind all of this. But now was not the time to voice my theory.
“But it has.” He squeezed my hand. “I got away that day. I got away because Talon freed me from the guy holding me and told me to run. At least that’s what I always thought.”
I wasn’t sure what to say, so I didn’t say anything, just continued holding his hand, rubbing my thumb into his palm.
“But my mother told me… God, do you have any idea how much I hate calling her my mother?”
I couldn’t help letting out a stilted laugh. “Of course I do.”
Finally, a tiny smile twitched at Ryan’s lips. “Of course you do. That was a stupid thing for me to say.”
“Tell me. You can tell me anything, Ryan. I… I love you.”
He sighed. “I love you too, baby.”
“Then trust me.” Those were loaded words, I knew. In his eyes, I had betrayed him when I gave a strand of his hair to Marjorie to have his DNA tested. We loved each other, but it would still take some time to recover from that.
He closed his eyes. “I’m trying.”
“I know.”
He opened his eyes. “My mother said Simpson and Mathias let me go that day because I was her son. That’s why Talon was taken and I wasn’t. Because I’m the spawn of that psychotic bitch who apparently was calling the shots that day.” He paused a moment, swallowing hard. “Do you have any idea what this does to me, Ruby? Any idea how this changes my history?”
“Ryan, it doesn’t have to change anything.”
“All these years… The way I remember it…” He rose from the bed, holding his pants up. He buckled them and began pacing around. “Talon. The brother I trusted with my life. The brother I thought had saved my life. Saved me from the horrible fate that he endured those months.” He slammed his fist against the closet door. “And now? I find out it’s been a lie. Talon didn’t save me that day. My fucked-up mother did.”
“Look,”
I said. “The most important thing is that you got away, isn’t it?”
“No. No, it’s not, Ruby. I got away solely because of my parentage. And my poor brother…” He choked back a sob. “My poor brother went through hell that I was spared because I’m the son of that fucked-up maniac.”