Becoming Us(3)
“Jade!” The door swings open and Garret appears with Walt right behind him. Walt grabs his arm, but Garret shoves him back.
Garret sees me standing there, my cheeks still wet with tears. He races over and holds my face, his eyes doing a quick scan of me. “Jade, are you okay?”
I nod. “Yeah.”
He pulls me into him, his arms in a protective lock around me.
“What the fuck is going on here?” He directs the question to Walt but then turns and notices William standing there. “What the hell? What are you doing here?”
“I was just. . .” William’s voice trails off. He seems out of it, like his mind needs time to process this.
“I told him,” I say to Garret. “I told him who I am and I told him what Royce did to my mom. But I don’t think he believes me.”
“Is that true?” Garret glares at William. “You really think she’d make up a story like that? You really believe your brother wasn’t capable of that? Did you even know him?”
“Garret, stop.” I motion to Walt.
“Get out!” Garret yells at Walt.
William nods at Walt, signaling him to leave.
Once he’s gone, Garret continues, his eyes on William. “She’s not lying. Your brother was a fucking rapist. And he left Jade’s mom there, hoping she’d die.” Garret holds me tighter. “Now you want to explain to me why you’re here and what the hell you’re doing with my wife?”
William wakes up from his daze. “How could this happen? How could I not know about it?”
Garret answers. “Because Royce paid people to keep their mouths shut. And if they didn’t keep quiet, he killed them. He killed Jade’s grandparents so they could never tell anyone the truth. He made it look like an accident.”
William’s eyes shift to the floor.
Garret huffs. “Yeah, I know it’s what you do. You. My dad. My grandfather. I know they make you do shit and cover it up, but it’s usually bad people, right?”
William doesn’t answer. He doesn’t even look at us.
“Whatever. I don’t even want to know. The point is that Royce did this on his own. The organization had nothing to do with it. Royce hurt innocent people. He destroyed lives. He killed people.”
William collapses down on the chair I was sitting in earlier. His shoulders slump and he rubs his temples with his hand. “Why didn’t he. . . why didn’t he kill her, too?” William looks at me. “He didn’t, did he? He couldn’t have. If he had, you wouldn’t—”
“He drugged her,” Garret says.
“Garret, he doesn’t need to—”
“No, Jade. He needs to hear this. Royce gave Jade’s mom some kind of hallucinogenic drug so everyone would think she’s crazy. That way nobody would believe her if she ever told anyone what happened. The pills caused her to have addictions. She started drinking right after Jade was born and she became an alcoholic. She couldn’t be a mother.” Garret gently rubs my arm as he holds me against him. “She wasn’t able to.”
William is now staring at me and it’s making me uncomfortable because I don’t know what he’s thinking. Does he still think I’m lying?
The room gets quiet again.
After what seems like a really long period of silence, William finally says, “You look like Sadie.”
“Yeah. I’ve met her.”
“So she knows?” William sounds surprised.
“No, she doesn’t know.”
“Jade went to a fundraiser at my house,” Garret explains. “The fundraiser was for Royce. That’s when Jade met him, but she didn’t know who he was back then. Sadie was there that night and that’s when Jade met her.”
“But Victoria knows.” He says it like it’s a given.
“No,” I say. “She doesn’t know either. But I met Victoria the night I met Sadie.”
“So who else knows about this besides my mother?”
“That’s it. Just you, Grace, and Garret. Oh, and Pearce.”
“My dad just found out.” Garret blurts it out, like he’s nervous or something. “Arlin told him. After Royce died.”
From the worried look on Garret’s face, I think I just spilled a huge secret. But why is it a secret that Pearce knew about me?
William nods. “I see. So when did my father learn about Jade?”
I answer. “After Royce died, Arlin found the police records from that night. They were in a file Royce had locked away in a safe. The file also had stuff in it about my mom and me. That’s when Arlin learned I existed. Later he came to see me and we got to know each other.”