Page 107 of The Secrets She Keeps

Miguel was back with a freshly changed Emilia Rose. Emilia had that little hat on again. She loved that hat. Someone had fixed her hair in pigtails too, what was there of it.

There were tiny overalls on that baby. Miguel’s kids liked dressing Emilia in wild outfits. They loved to make her look like Hope now. It was so cute.

The tension when everyone settled back down was real. Powell’s father had left earlier to go check on his wife. But everyone else was still there.

Daniel McKellen was waiting impatiently. That man needed to learn to prioritize better.

Family first. No matter what. Heather checked on Ember again. Mac was still holding Heather’s baby girl, sitting right there at Heather’s feet now. So close she could feel the man’s heat. Like he was a living wall—between her and McKellen.

It felt weird to have Powell’s brother so close.

No denying that.

Especially after what she had said to him. She remembered part of it. Not all. She couldn’t remember it all, but she remembered enough to know things wouldn’t be the same between her and Mac Barratt ever again.

Apparently, Heather didn’t haveanyfilters when in a state of shock. Imagine that.

She still hadn’t processed anything that had happened. Heather was making sure that didn’t show. Making it look likeshe was okay, at least. She knew how toact,how to put on a front. She’d been doing it for years, after all.

“Okay, I want to go back to sleep,” Heather said to the room at large. “It’s time to get down to the nitty-gritty. What else did you find on my clothes?”

“He spit on you,” Daniel said.

“Yes. He did. No, I don’t know who he was. Do you?” She heard the challenge in her tone, but Heather didn’t care. She was so tired of backing down from men at the TSP. So tired.

And Daniel McKellen was soTSPin everything he did. She did not want that man lounging around her living room right there next to her family. Learning about her family, their strengths, weaknesses. She just didn’t.

“We think that maybe we do,” Gunnar said.

“There was a full match between the sample taken from your jeans and one of the other known samples. Enough to say the man who spit on you was the biological father of that other sample. And, well, three other samples taken from the sweatshirt. We’re just…looking for names and information,” Daniel told her.

“What?” Her head still hurt; the damned man just wasn’t making much sense.

“The man who spit on you was the father of four of the samples found on your sweatshirt,” Gunnar said. “No sense dancing around it. The man who spit on you is Samia’s biological father.”

“What?Timothy?” Bonnie almost shouted, then deflated. “Timothy did this? But…that doesn’t make any sense.”

Heather thought about those moments in that dark closet. With that man leaning over her, grabbing her, hitting her. She hadn’t seen her brother-in-law in… “It has been so long since I saw him. I think it could have been him. That man was just astall as Timothy, I think. And he sounded so familiar. And…he was angry with the younger one.”

“He was very angry that that one kicked you so hard. Furious. It felt really weird to me that he made that one stop kicking you after he hit you so hard himself—” Powell’s breath caught. Heather just knew. Powell was going to crack again at any moment. Heather forced her hand to remain steady as she wrapped her fingers around the younger woman’s. Powell thought she hid it—but she was sensitive inside. Like most of Heather’s nieces, always trying to appear so tough, so strong. When they really just weren’t.

“I don’t really rememberthatpart. Since my bell was still ringing and everything.” Heather forced herself to make a joke of it. So her family wouldn’t look at her with the fear in their faces again. She knew they were worried. Afraid she was going to crack.

“We never really got a good look at that man’s face. Not his—the older man,” Powell said. “He just came in, argued with the other man, then just hit Heather and left. Hiding behind his phone light. He hit Heather, but he didn’t want the younger man kicking her. I never got a good look at him at all. But you said four. Samia’s DNA, who were the rest?”

“One sample came back as the full sister of Samia. We had Samia’s DNA from that open assault case back in November. Her full sister’s DNA was almost as prevalent as Heather’s,” Daniel said.

“It was Summer’s sweatshirt,” Heather said, wincing. “I’d borrowed it.”

“Probably hers, then. One of the male samples found on the sweatshirt came back to Samia’s half brother, it looks like,” Haldyn said, flipping through papers.

“We have a half brother,” Eden said quietly. She’d paled. Looked sick. Heather understood how she felt. “He’s four yearsolder than Heather and Joy. We just haven’t seen him in eighteen years. And never really wanted to. We all hated him; we were a little afraid of him too.”

“No kidding,” Joy said. Heather alone knew why Joy felt that way.

“His name is Trey. Timothy the third.” Bonnie said quietly. “He is Timothy’s from a previous relationship. Angela loved him, treated him like he was her son. She wanted him to live with them. But his mother made things very difficult for her and Timothy and Trey.”

“How many samples were found on Heather’s shirt that weren’t Colesons or Barratts?” Hope asked, looking at Haldyn. “Do you know?”

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