Page 49 of Small-Town Secrets
"Something like that." I stepped up to them and looked at the folder on the table without really seeing any of the designs. There was tribal stuff and skulls and... was that a dragon? I couldn't focus.
The real reason I was here wasn't to help Jake pick his tattoo. No, I needed to make sense of the photographs in my house and the uncanny resemblance I shared with Laurence's children. The last time I was at this studio, Mrs. Rosewood had said something that made me suspicious. She wasn't here now, but Raphael. He knew something. He had to. I'd seen the way he looked at Mrs. Rosewood when she claimed nobody knew who the twins' father was.
That it wasn't Howard.
But if it wasn't Howard...
That didn't leave too many other options, did it?
I'd been in denial about it, chalking it up to the ramblings of an old lady, and if I really wanted to, I could probably explain the photographs away too... But it was time to get to the bottom of this.
Jake and Raphael continued talking. I waited for a lull in the conversation, and as soon as there was an opening, I jumped in.
"Raph, could I have a word with you?"
"A word?" Raphael looked at me with raised eyebrows. Understandable. He and I weren't the closest of friends. He was probably wondering what I wanted with him. "Um, why don't we go in my office? And Jake can look at the designs some more."
"Sure," Jake nodded, even though he seemed just as perplexed as Raphael was. "You're not trying to schedule a tattoo ahead of me, are you?"
"No way. Don't worry about that."
"So I don't get to ink you?" Raph sounded almost a little sad.
"No, I'm afraid not."
"Well, okay." Raph started walking as we spoke and I followed him until he closed the door to his small office behind us. "If you're not here to talk about my awesome skills as a tattoo artist, what is it that you're wanting to talk about?" He leaned on the edge of his desk and eyed me with a measuring look. "Is everything okay with you and Laurence?"
"I'm not sure," I admitted.
"How are you not sure?"
"You remember last time I was here and Mrs. Rosewood said that thing about the twins not being Howard's children?"
"Did she say that?" Raph tried a little too hard to sound casual. I pierced him with my gaze. He didn't squirm, but I got the feeling he wanted to. "You can't intimidate me," he joked. "I have a black belt too."
"I'm not trying to intimidate you. All I want is the truth."
"If you want to know something about Laurence's children, don't you think he's the one you should be asking?"
"I don't want to trouble him if it's just a misunderstanding. He's been through enough shit."
"You're not wrong about that." Raph exhaled and dragged the heel of his hand down his face. "You know, I told him to talk to you," he muttered, as if to himself. "I guess it's not so easy."
"So it's true?"
Raph met my gaze. "You have to understand it came as a surprise to him too. We did a paternity test with the twins at the shelter when Howard tried to claim sole custody. Once he knew they weren't his, he lost all interest. Case closed. Well, not fully closed." He gave me a wry smile. I only heard half of what he was telling me.
What Mrs. Rosewood had said was true. Howard wasn't the father. And that meant....
That meant...
There was a very clear reason for why the twins looked so much like me.
"Don't you think you should go home and talk to Laurence?" Raph asked.
I nodded. He was absolutely right.
I had to talk to Laurence.
