Page 87 of Inevitable Secrets

“Okay, Charlie, go home. I will call you later to check in,” Taylor said and disconnected. She turned back to Derrick who was breathing like he was about to give birth. “What do we do now?” she asked him.

“I don’t know,” he wheeze-whined out to her.

Taylor closed her eyes and tried to think. “He wanted to bring us home, right? Maybe he has some information here?” she asked, opening her eyes and looking at Derrick who was now leaning against the wall. “Should we check his room?” she asked her husband.

Derrick shrugged. “I guess it’s as good a place to start as any,” he grunted out.

Taylor rolled her eyes. “Suck it up and let’s go,” she said taking off down the hall.

* * *

As they madetheir way to where Henry was staying in the mansion, Derrick cleared his throat to ensure his sister had not really kicked his balls into his throat. God, Marty was in a pissy mood, and she had been for a few days now. If only she knew all the shit that was really going on.

When they stopped at Henry’s door, Taylor just stared at it. “Do you think it’s unlocked?” Taylor asked, just looking at the knob.

“Well, there is only one way to find out,” Derrick said dryly, reaching around her and turning the knob, pushing the door open before her.

Taylor looked at the open doorway in front of her. “I was really overthinking that,” she said.

“Yeah, you were,” Derrick said, “now go in.”

They entered the room and looked around. It was in perfect condition. There were no papers on the small desk, the bed was made tight as a drum, and all the drawers were closed.

“Does he even stay in here?” Derrick mused as he bent cautiously and looked under the bed for something, a dust bunny even.

“Look in the drawers,” Taylor said, pointing to the bedside table, as she made her way over to the clothes bureau and started looking inside.

Derrick looked in the bedside table drawers but they were all empty, with no sign of anyone ever having used them. He made his way to help Taylor and looked in the other bureau drawers. There were some clothes in the drawers, but everything was so neat it almost looked fake.

“Geez, is he a robot or something? Everything is so precise,” Derrick said as he moved some stiff pants out of the way and found a box. It was rectangular, and looked like the box a fancy pen would go in. He picked it up, and it felt light but he heard something move in it. He looked at Taylor, shaking it, and whatever was inside made a rattling sound. Derrick went to remove the lid but Taylor stopped him.

“That looks personal,” Taylor said.

“Or it could be something with info,” Derrick defended, and pulled off the cover before Taylor could argue. “What the hell is this?” he said out loud as he plucked a white stick with a blue top from the box. He looked at Taylor and saw her eyes go wide and her mouth fall open. “What?” Derrick asked and then he saw that there was a spot on the stick, like a screen with a word—Pregnant.

Now Derrick’s eyes went wide. “Whoa! Henry’s girl is pregnant,” he said in a loud whisper and looked at Taylor, whose eyes were locked on the pregnancy test and who looked like she was going to be sick.

“What's wrong?” he asked.

Taylor looked at Derrick and then back to the stick, grabbing it from his hands and putting it back in the box. She threw the box into the drawer and slammed it shut. “There isn’t anything here. We need to keep looking,” she said, but she was frazzled.

“That’s not nothing,” Derrick said, looking back at the now-closed drawer.

“Will you focus?” Taylor said, her tone harsh and frustrated. “Let’s go and try to come up with another plan,” she said, leaving Henry’s room.

Derrick looked back at the drawer, and sadness came over him. They needed to figure something out and quick because now Henry’s family was depending on them, too.

Twenty-Seven

As Taylor stalked awayfrom Henry’s room her emotions were in a whirl. But the worst feeling was how pissed off she was at all the unfairness that was currently swirling around them.

That pregnancy test was now at the forefront of her mind. She needed to fix this whole thing for so many reasons, but now she felt like the most important reason was in a drawer three floors below her. Okay, well the reason was actually in Marty’s belly, but that was beside the point.

“It seems like Cedric found that page, but where the hell is it?” Taylor asked as she paced around their room. “You would think he would leave it some place obvious,” she said in frustration.

“Well, where haven’t we looked?”

Taylor furrowed her brow, like it would help her get to a deeper concentration level, and began to think of a place it could be. The brow thing was a fail, though, because she was still coming up blank.

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