Page 84 of Fallen
"Then I swear it will be done."
Nodding, I bent and picked up the dropped feather.
"Anna, I didn't come here just to ask for forgiveness." His voice dropped to a lower octave, making my pulse increase. "I came here to tell you something about your parents."
Your parents.
Those two words froze me on the spot. "W-what?"
Just the mention of the two people who'd dumped me here as a kid caused conflicting emotions. Excitement, sadness, regret…
"Perhaps you should sit." With a gentle touch, his fingers grasped my upper arm, and he guided me to the edge of the bed.
Terror washed over me.What exactly did he learn? Are they dead? Alive?I truly didn't know which would be worse.
Being alive would be the best news because I could ask why they'd abandoned me.
Because if they were dead, I would never get answers, never know if they really did give me up because of my disability.
Lucian must've been reading my face. "Dear Anna, the news is probably not what you want to hear." His voice, so gentle, nearly forced fresh tears to fall from my eyes. "I've been trying to find them for years. Jack and Hayley Sill, correct?"
Numbly, I nodded, too afraid to speak or wonder how he knew their names.He's a being with untold powers. There's no telling what he could do.All this time, I'd only been worried about whether we were friends, if he'd ever loved me, why he'd been so cruel to my friends, carefully ignoring the fact he was an immortal god capable of who knew what.
"About twenty years ago, Jack and Hayley became drug runners for the Mexican cartel. And that delectable, juicy sin—greed—took its toll."
"Drugs? My parents…sold drugs?" I searched my early memories, trying to recall if I'd ever seen my parents injecting, snorting, smoking, or whatever people did to get high. Nothing stood out. My early memories had been full of love, safety, and laughter.
Unless my mind blocked out something bad, something traumatic.
"Yes. Drugs, which rank right up there with the other human corruptions of money, sex, and power." His tone was amused. After a quick side-eye to me, he cleared his throat. "Apparently, they'd been tasked with delivering a shipment of meth to Abilene, Texas. They took a small cut, thinking no one would notice. Suffice it to say they were caught."
My brain reeled from this new information. My parents not only worked for a drug ring, but they tried to stiff their employers.How stupid could they have been?"What happened after that?"
Lucian's face betrayed no emotion. "The cartel kept them in a cell in the basement of a stash house. The men raped your mother in front of your father, then dragged her away bound and gagged."
This news is even worse than I expected.My mother had been violated? Pain clenched my heart. I didn't want to hear any more.
"No." I covered my ears. "Please. No more." Tears swam across my eyes at the mental anguish of Lucian's words.
"Are you sure you do not want to hear the rest of it?"
Even with my hands muffling my hearing, his words reached my ears. I started to nod, then realized if I never knew their story, I'd always regret not listening to the truth, no matter how terrible. If what Lucian said was true, he'd gone out of his way to find these answers, and if nothing else, I owed it to my mother and father to learn their fate.
Dropping my hands from my head, I wrapped my arms around my waist, tucked my chin against my chest, and whispered, "What happened next?"
Lucian shifted on the bed next to me, causing the springs in the mattress to squeak. "Your father escaped, and I imagine you were the reason. They always left you with a sitter when they went on their runs."
Yes, I vaguely remembered staying with an Aunt.Had her name been Myrtle?
No, it was Merle. Aunt Merle.
I couldn't recall her face, but I remember she'd lived in a big old two-storied house. Her kitchen table had been covered with a red-and-white checkered tablecloth. Had she been a real Aunt, or in name only?
Lucian's voice brought me back to the present. "I imagine Jack knew what would happen if the cartel found out about you, so he managed to make his way to you and pick you up. The cartel had been hot on his trail, but he made it to the orphanage under cover of night."
The sisters had always said I'd been given up due to my blindness.Why would they have lied?A bitter part of me answered.Because cruelty lies in all of us, even those sworn to the light.
How did I know what was true, though?
