Page 105 of Petty's Crime

“You didn’t know,” Rufus interrupts her. “And neither did I. It’s too late to know what we would have done. We were hard pushed pulling together the money for one baby, let alone two.”

“I couldn’t have left him.” Martina grabs Rose’s hand. “You’ve got to believe me. I never knew.”

CHAPTERTHIRTY-FOUR

RoseLyn

It’s a hell of a lot for me to process. My parents, no, or perhaps as I should be calling them, Martina and Rufus Blakeney, have been lying to me all my life, or at least, not telling me the truth and letting me believe I was a blood relative. They’d emphasised the similarities between me and my mom, perhaps to give credence to their story.

I’ve had a good life. There’s nothing I could regret about my childhood. But it still doesn’t stop me being hurt. Maybe I wouldn’t want to trace my birth mother if she was, as they said, a junkie who basically sold her baby for her next fix. She might not even be alive. The odds are probably against it. But I should have been given the choice. It should have been for me to decide whether I might want to search for other family.

I do believe they didn’t know about me having a twin, but maybe I’d have found him if I’d gone looking. But then, at the age of eighteen, the damage would probably have been done. It could have already been too late to fix him.

They bought me.More than that, they picked me, like some piece of furniture they’d chosen from a store.

I wonder what it would have been like if they hadn’t been the ones to adopt me. With no checks and the adoption arranged without the blessing of social services, I could have ended up in a family like Thorne’s. I shudder. I’d had a lucky escape. Although I don’t like him, it doesn’t stop my heart going out to Thorne, and while there are no excuses for his behaviour, his jealously is understandable. Then again, maybe it is a kind of justification for the way he treated me. I know the statistics. A child brought up in an abusive house is more likely to turn out abusive themselves.

Red seems to be giving me a moment as he takes over the conversation. “You’ve met Thorne.” His gaze goes first to Martina, and then to Rufus who look shocked. “He came to your house. He wore a disguise, thinking you might see the resemblance if you met him. He does look uncannily like RoseLyn.” Red’s eyes stare at them, but they look more incredulous than awkward at being caught out in the truth.

“I hear what you say, but I still don’t believe you. We’d have known if they were twins.” My dad, Rufus, looks down his nose at his hands. “Surely we would have realised? Any resemblance has to be coincidental,” he states. “Someone’s sold the kid a pack of lies.” He thinks and then latches on to the important part. “What do you mean, he came to our house?”

Petty goes to speak but Red stops him with a raise of a hand. “We’ve got the records from the clinic. There’s no doubt there were twins, and that there was only one woman who gave birth.” He drills them with his piercing gaze. “I don’t attach any blame to you for not knowing, but the facts stand as they are.”

“He came to our house?” Martina seems to be fixated on that part. “Why didn’t he say anything? And why was he there? When?”

This time Petty is allowed to speak. “The pastor you found so endearing,” he retorts, and even upset as I am, I hear the sting in his voice, and link it to their statement that Mom, at least, had liked him for me. “That was when you met Thorne.”

“But why?” Mom cries. “Why would he come to us?”

Again, it’s Petty who answers. “He was interested in RoseLyn’s life. Unfortunately, you confirmed she’d been brought up in a loving, decent home. She got to live in comfort, surrounded by love, while he was brought up knowing nothing but physical and sexual abuse.”

A sideways glance at the woman who I’ve called Mom all my life shows that she’s sobbing. Guilt? Or just compassion for an unknown child? When her hand shoots out and grabs mine, holding it so tight I can’t pull it away, I turn and meet her glistening eyes.

“That could have been you, Rose.” Her voice falters, and she’s openly crying now.

Petty’s arm tightens around me, showing he’s thinking the unthinkable too.

But it’s Rufus who surprises me, and perhaps re-earns the title of Dad. “What can we do now? Not saying there’s anything to make up for, we weren’t to know. But if there’s some way of showing this boy, man, some love and affection that he surely deserves, maybe it’s not too late to bring him into the fold.”

“I’m afraid it is.” Red moves his head slowly side to side. “I think he’s far too gone for redemption. Inviting him into your family will be like inviting a snake into your house.” He grimaces when he sees my shudder. “I wouldn’t trust him. He might say the right words, but what if the cuckoo decides there’s only room for one chick in the house?”

I wouldn’t put it past Thorne to make sure of it. I hate to say I agree with the Satan’s Devils’ prez, but I do.

“Perhaps we could speak to him?” Mom seems to have picked up on Dad’s idea. “Explain we had no idea?” But then they’re innocent in the horrors of life.

Petty and Red seem to have one of their manly conversations which don’t include words.

It’s left to me to answer. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. He’s not exactly stable.” Maybe he hadn’t been from the damage done by the drugs his birth mom had taken. Maybe his lifestyle had only made whatever was already there worse. “His mind’s twisted with bitterness and resentment. He’s as likely to question why you abandoned a sickly child anyway, and just took the healthy one.” I give a little shake of my head when she goes to argue. “Anything you say is likely to be twisted to fit the narrative in his head.”

“You’ve spoken to him?”

“He kidnapped me, remember?” They seem to have glossed over that. They need to know everything, so I continue to answer my dad. “He wanted to make you suffer and knew hurting me was a way to get to you. His plan was to cut pieces off of me and send them to you.”

“What the…?” Dad’s on his feet now.

Mom also stands but places a hand on his arm. “Maybe we can get him help?”

“You heard what she said, Martina.” Dad’s obviously having difficulty processing what Thorne had done.

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