Page 16 of Shadow Warrior
Five
Brunner looked up from her paperwork as I entered. “Miss Justice. Good to see you.” She smiled, but the action didn’t sit right on her face today. She stood and rounded her desk to take my hands in hers and give them a squeeze. “I was about to send a goyle for you.”
“You were?”
Why was she standing? And why was she touching me?
“Yes. Please, sit,” she said.
“Something’s wrong, isn’t it?”
“Please, sit, Justice,” she said again.
I settled in the chair by her desk.
Brunner perched on the edge of her desk and looked down at me with a slight frown. “I have some good news and some not-so-good news.”
Oh, God. “Give me the not-so-good news.”
“Payne won’t be coming back.”
A weight settled on my chest. “He won’t?”
“I received word from the head of the Payne family earlier today. She’s asked for us to pack up his belongings and send them to Mirage Hills.”
Mirage Hills … The name of the gated community where the weavers lived.
“What about Payne? Have you heard directly from him?”
She shook her head and then reached for something on her desk. An envelope. Crisp and white.
She handed it to me. “Payne left this for you.”
I took the envelope. My name was written across it in neat, forward-leaning script.
“Please, read it,” Brunner said softly.
“Now.”
She nodded. “It’s what Payne wanted.”
I took a deep breath and then opened the letter.
Dear Indigo,
I’m so sorry that I won’t get to watch you graduate or reach your full potential. I’m sorry we won’t get to take that trip. I’m sorry I didn’t find you sooner.
I want you to know that the last few weeks we spent together were some of the happiest of my life. I wouldn’t give them up for the world. I knew what exposing your mother’s secret would mean. I knew what claiming you would mean, but I did it because I wanted to. I wanted to call you my daughter.
I may not be with you in the flesh, but I’ll be with you in spirit. Always.
Paynex
My gaze flew up to meet Brunner’s. “What does this mean? What have they done to him?”
“I don’t know,” Brunner said. “The weavers have their own laws. I wish I could tell you more.”
Icy anger trickled through my veins. “It’s fine.” I swallowed it down, tucking it away to use later because there was nothing Brunner could do for me on this issue. I’d have to deal with this myself.
