Page 104 of Petty's Crime

“You’d condone killing?” Martina asks, having remained silent for a while.

“You’d like to see me dead?” RoseLyn challenges, then uses her mother’s question as a launching board to address the subject that’s burning at her. “Well, what do I know how you think? You’re not even my real mother.”

Martina’s hand covers her mouth, and Rufus takes her other and holds it tightly. It’s him who answers. “She’s been a mom to you all your life. We’ve given you everything, Rose, how could you ever doubt that?”

“But she’s not my mom, and you’re not my dad.”

Red leans back and folds his arms. He drawls lazily, “The problem with secrets is that they have a habit of coming out. RoseLyn knows the truth.” He states that so they know they have no room to argue. “It was easy enough to find out. You’re just lucky RoseLyn never thought to ask or have a reason to investigate earlier. And unlucky you never told her the truth.”

“You’re my child.” Martina’s eyes brim with tears, realising Red’s right and there’s no point denying it. “I didn’t give birth to you, but I held you before you were a day old. You’ve never been anyone else’s, only ours.”

“We couldn’t have loved you more if your mom had birthed you,” Rufus states, his voice not as firm as it was before. “You can’t hold this against us, Rose.”

RoseLyn leans further into me, and I put my arm around her, ignoring that her position means she’s putting pressure on my sore ribs.

“If it was just that I was adopted, I’d be stunned, but wouldn’t think the worst of you. But…” Words seem to fail her.

I speak for the first time in ages. “We couldn’t figure out how Saul kept managing to find her. It seemed likely that he had help from someone, and it turned out he did. From a cop. Long story short, while it wasn’t the cop who was actively harming her, it was another man acting out of unrequited love, and the overwhelming desire for revenge.”

“Revenge?” Rufus looks confused. “Hold up a bit. You’re losing me here. Saul…” he shakes his head. “I always thought he was a decent sort, but realised he was capable of anything once he put my daughter in the hospital. It’s a stretch, but maybe I can accept he was obsessed and wouldn’t move on. But who are these other people? A cop who was giving Saul information and another man… I’m lost. Who was he, and what did he want with her?”

“Saul was as much of a pawn as RoseLyn,” Red butts in, and I give him a grateful nod. “Saul was an instrument.” Prez brushes his hand over his beard. “Could be Saul just wanted RoseLyn to go back to him, but another seed got planted in his head, maybe about how much she’d wronged him. He was used by the other side to this triangle. A man who was out for vengeance.”

“Why should anyone else want revenge against Rose?” Deep creases appear on Rufus’s forehead. “What have you gotten yourself into, baby?”

“He didn’t want revenge against her, well, not entirely.” It’s me who tells him, “He wanted to hurt you, for what you did, or maybe more accurately, didn’t do, for him.”

Rufus stands and leans his hands on the table. “Will you start making some sense?” He looks at me, then Red. “We’ve never caused harm to anyone.”

“But you did,” RoseLyn says, deceptively calm, and it’s only because I can feel her hand shaking that I know she’s not as steady as she’s trying to portray. “Mom, why did you take me and leave my twin? You could have raised us together. Instead, he was left to suffer a life of abuse. And the other difference?” she huffs, “was that he knew the people who raised him weren’t related by blood.”

Rufus looks mystified. Martina looks to him for guidance, but he appears stumped for words, so it’s her who answers. Her back seems to straighten. “Honey, you have no twin.” She holds up her hand as RoseLyn goes to refute her. “We couldn’t have kids of our own, and were getting on in years. We tried to adopt, knowing we had so much love to give to a child, but kept missing out. Your dad,” knowing by the look on RoseLyn’s face that this is no time to use that title, she corrects with a distasteful grimace, “Rufus found we could get a baby if we paid.”

“So my adoption wasn’t even legal.” RoseLyn rolls her eyes.

Martina’s face hardens. “Oh, it was legal. All the paperwork is there. But it was a private arrangement. We knew the reasons your birth mother couldn’t keep you. She didn’t want a baby in her life, and had… problems.”

“We met your birth mother before the birth.” Rufus removes his hands from the desk and straightens, his eyes glazing slightly as though remembering back. “She was in a dire situation. She’d had problems with drugs, and couldn’t afford prenatal care. She didn’t even know what sex she was having, but we didn’t care. There was a man there handling the adoption. We’d pay for you, and the birth mother would get some of the payment, enough to get her life straightened out.” Red snorts loudly, but Rufus continues, “I don’t know where this idea of a twin comes from. We saw you shortly after you were born, but you needed some care due to your mother’s addiction and were whisked straight away to get postnatal care.”

“I was worried out of my mind,” Martina takes over. “I spent all my time in the nursery.”

Rufus grimaces. “There was another baby there, a boy. He was apparently born around the same time as RoseLyn, but he was much smaller. Like Rose, his mom had had a drug problem. He was weak and jaundiced, and they weren’t even sure he’d make it.”

“The same man was handling his adoption,” Martina says, her eyes glazing as though thinking back. “I remember asking about him. He said, if he lived, he was wanted by a good family. I was worried as it looked like he might have problems throughout his life.

“You were everything to me, Rose. Right from the beginning.” Her voice drops to a whisper. “If I had birthed you myself, I couldn’t have had more love for you. You were mine from that moment.”

RoseLyn doesn’t seem convinced by the story. “So why is Thorne so convinced he’s my twin?”

“I have no idea,” Martina replies.

Red draws his hands over his face. “Another way for his adoptive parents to taunt him, perhaps?”

Rufus sits down, his ass meeting the chair with a heavy thump. “And he’s resented Rose all his life because he thinks he should have been living her life?”

“He resents you more,” Red states. “For not adopting him, and leaving him to suffer a lifetime of abuse.” He raises his hand. “For the record, there was no other mother. Thorne was Rose’s twin.”

There’s silence, and it’s broken by Martina. “Oh my,” she wails, and starts openly crying now. “If I’d known—”

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