Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 71226 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 356(@200wpm)___ 285(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71226 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 356(@200wpm)___ 285(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
“While you wait, we need to get you to fill out these treatment forms for Dean,” Sage said shakily.
“Oh,” a woman replied. “We’re self-pay.”
Vague recognition sparked in my brain.
An old memory of a voice that I couldn’t quite place.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re self-pay or insurance-pay,” Sage interjected. “This is right to treat paperwork. Liability-wise, we have to have this information. We also need some information on the child. Full name, date of birth, birth parents. Things of that nature. Medical history on the child. Medical history on both parents.”
“He doesn’t have a dad.”
Now that voice, I’d know fucking anywhere.
Nadine had a nasally voice that sounded like she constantly needed to blow her nose.
Seven years later, and I still knew that voice well.
“Is he deceased?” Sage asked carefully.
“You could say that.” The other slightly familiar voice snorted.
“We just need as much information as we can. As soon as you get that filled out, Dr. Mayer will be right in.”
“Maybe we should leave.”
I stiffened.
Sage blocked the door. “I’m afraid I can’t let you do that, Professor Wood.”
The two women paused. “Who are you?”
Sage crossed her arms over her chest and blocked the door with her body. “I was married to this boy’s father. And let’s just say, we were all under the assumption that he was dead.”
I heard the slight “oh fuck” from Nadine.
And I was finally able to pinpoint the other voice as Nadine’s wife, Brooke, when she said with false bravado, “If you don’t move out of the way right now, I’m going to put a hole the size of my fist through your chest.”
Odin pushed past me before I could react, shoving me to the side and said, “Breakroom.”
My feet were frozen to the floor, but Bernice had me by the arm and she was all but shoving me into the breakroom before I could think to intervene.
My head was messed up.
My son was alive.
I hadn’t seen him, but I trusted Sage.
After hearing Nadine’s voice…
“She disappeared before the trial,” I said to Bernice, talking but not really realizing what I was saying. “I tried to write her a letter. To stop by even. To apologize. But she was just gone. Nowhere to be found. I thought she’d moved. Changed her name after everything that’d happened. She didn’t even show up to the trial to testify or anything despite being subpoenaed.
“I had Apollo look for her after I got out,” I said. “As an afterthought. I just wanted to know that she was okay. But he’d never found her. Granted, I wasn’t pushing him too hard. But he should’ve been able to easily find her.”
Bernice squeezed my hand.
Before I could say anything more, the door to the breakroom opened and Denver pushed through, eyeing me up and down.
Hux was next, his gaze on me and Bernice holding my hand.
Black was last, though out of uniform. “What the hell is going on?”
“You’re not leaving!” Sage ordered loudly. “You’re going to stay right there and explain.”
A kid darted into the breakroom. He froze when he saw all the people in it, but moved until he was behind a coat rack behind the door.
Hiding.
“Dean, come back here right now!” Brooke roared. “Don’t you run away from me again, you little shit!”
I stiffened at the vehemence in Brooke’s words.
The coats that the boy had hidden behind trembled.
Odin’s voice, forceful and strong, said, “That boy is terrified of you. You reached for him and he all but dove away from your raised hand. Would you like to explain?”
My heart seized as an awful suspicion started to take root inside my soul.
“It’s called discipline,” Brooke snorted. “And we brought him here because he was running a fever. The kid probably has no idea what he’s doing.”
“Why did you drive fifty miles away when you’re from Outer Rim?” Sage asked carefully. “From what I understand, there is a doctor’s office there. You could’ve saved yourself a couple of hours’ drive if you’d gone to the one in your town.”
Outer Rim was a town about twenty miles from Bear Pass and Sawtooth as the crow flies, but two hours thanks to the mountains you had to go around and up.
And Sage was right.
There was a doctor’s office there.
Why wouldn’t they have taken Dean there?
Why here?
More suspicion bloomed.
“Why don’t you mind your own goddamn business!” Brooke boomed.
“Brooke,” Nadine cautioned.
Something slammed.
The coat rack trembled harder.
I didn’t listen to anything else that was said after that.
I dropped down to one knee and gently pulled the coats apart, finding myself staring into gray eyes just like my own.
The same freckles were dotted under those eyes, all across cheekbones—high just like mine.
The same black hair. The same nose. The same lips.
The same chin dimple.
I swallowed hard when I got to the boy’s neck, knowing that if this was Dean, he’d have a…
I spotted the birthmark just like my own.