Page 145 of The Lost and the Found

“And my mom? Why did she leave?”

“I don’t know. I think she blamed Mathew for what happened, when it had been my fault all along. She took off with you in the middle of the night, and we didn’t know where you went.” He cupped my cheek. “I was scared you might be lost to us forever.”

“Then how did you find me? When did you find me?”

“I found you a month before we met. I didn’t approach you, mostly because I didn’t know you, and I didn’t know how you would react to me. And I found you because Greg Reynolds recognized your name on his roster when you signed up for his class this semester. I had put your name out to any associates and connections I had, with only a vague description of you, considering I didn’t know what you would look like as an adult.”

“Dr. Reynolds is involved in this? How do you even know him?”

“He was an old neighbor from Mathew’s neighborhood. He has a gambling problem and I help him out from time to time. And when he called me and told me he might know where the girl I had been looking for was, I went over to the university the very next day. You didn’t notice me, but I had been sitting in the back of your class for close to a month. I had to make sure it was you.”

“And how did you do that?” I asked, not sure if I would like the answer, but needing to hear it all the same.

“I hired a PI to look into your past,” he said quietly.

“And he found everything. So, you found me.”

“I found you,” he repeated softly.

I didn’t say much after that, not sure what I was supposed to say in a situation like this or how I was supposed to feel.

“Thank you for telling me,” I told him after a long moment, and then I got off his lap and walked out the door.

“Hayden?”

I didn’t answer him. I packed a small bag with some clothes and my essentials, then I walked out the door and Logan didn’t stop me.

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