Chapter 123
The mention of Mace sent a soft ripple through my chest. The note. The truth. My mother trying to keep Rook and me together. Someone else trying too.
“Do you think Burdock knew her?” I asked Jess.
Jess nodded slowly. “He knew everyone who passed through that compound. He would remember her.”
I swallowed around the knot forming in my throat. Ginger’s face flashed through my memory. The soft red curls. The humming under her breath while chopping vegetables. The way she had glanced at me with kindness in her eyes, something I did not know was rare at the time. Something I missed for years.
If she had known my mother, if Burdock had known her, if they had tried to fight for us in their own quiet ways, then maybe the story I had built in my mind about being unwanted was not the truth at all. Maybe the story was more complicated. More human. More painful and tender in the places I could not see until now.
Reif watched me carefully. “You are thinking yourself into exhaustion,” he said.
“Probably,” I murmured.
Torin stepped closer and rested his hand on the small of my back. “Let’s go for a walk,” he said.
The others had already started debating takeout again, so I nodded and followed Torin out the door. The hallway smelled faintly like old paint and someone’s forgotten laundry. It was an oddly comforting scent after everything we had lived through.
The evening air wrapped around us as we stepped outside, cool and quiet. Torin took my hand as we walked down the block, not pulling, just holding. His thumb traced slow circles against my skin, steadying me in a way nothing else could.
“I keep thinking about what Mace said,” I told him. “About someone else trying to keep Rook and me together. Someone who wasn’t my mother.”
Torin nodded. “You think it was Burdock.”
“I think it might have been,” I said. “He was the only one who ever looked at me like Skye did not own me. Like he wanted me somewhere safer.”
Torin slowed his steps. “Burdock tried to take you from that compound once,” he said quietly. “He did not succeed.”
I stopped walking. “You never told me that.”
“It was not my story to tell,” Torin said.
His voice was soft but certain, the kind that did not invite anger, just understanding.
“What happened?” I asked.
Torin looked out at the street for a moment before answering. “He wanted to bring you to Ginger. She wanted to raise you. But Skye threatened to start a war if Burdock interfered. Mace backed Burdock up. They almost came to blows with Skye and his men.”
I felt my breath catch. “They fought for me?”
“Yes,” Torin said. “They did.”
I pressed a hand to my mouth, overwhelmed.
“We all thought you should have been with them,” Torin continued. “But it was not that simple. Politics. Patches. Pride. All of it got in the way.”
My eyes stung. “I never knew.”
“You were a kid,” Torin said. “You were not supposed to know.”
I turned to him fully. His expression held that same calm strength I had leaned on so many times before. My fingers curled into the fabric of his shirt.
“Tomorrow,” I said, “when we see Burdock… what should I say?”
“Whatever feels right,” Torin said. “If you want to ask him about your mother, ask him. If you want to ask him about the note, or why he tried to protect you, ask him. If you want to just sit there and listen, that is fine.”
I exhaled shakily. “I am nervous.”
“I know,” Torin said. “But you are not that girl from the compound anymore. You are stronger. You are safer. You are surrounded by people who would walk through hell for you.”
He leaned down and kissed my forehead.
“You are not facing Burdock,” he whispered. “You are facing the truth. And it is time.”
I leaned into him and wrapped my arms around his waist. His steady heartbeat gave me something solid to hold on to.
When we finally walked back toward the loft, I felt a strange mix of dread and hope. The kind of feeling that comes right before you open a door you have avoided your whole life.
Before we reached the building, Torin brushed his knuckles across my cheek.
“Tomorrow,” he said. “We will get answers.”
But when we stepped into the loft, a small white envelope lay on the floor just inside the door.
No name. No stamp. Just a single line written across the front in the same handwriting from the first note.
You deserve the whole truth.
My breath caught.
Reif whispered, “Oh hell.”
Torin stepped forward slowly, shoulders tensing just enough for me to feel it.
The past was not done speaking.
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