Chapter 5

Anita

I jolt awake from a nightmare, breathing rapidly. As I look around my surroundings, I remember I'm in the hospital. Raven lay next to me, asleep with her head wrapped and casts on her left arm and leg. Tears well in my eyes from relief that my nightmare was wrong. She's alive, not dead.

My nightmares usually consist of the truth, they usually consist of the tragic night five years ago. I find myself lightly tracing over her lips until those green eyes meet mine. One look in mine and I know she can see something is bothering me.

"I'm still here," she whispers soothingly as if she could read exactly what I was thinking.

I nod vigorously as the tears fall rapidly down my cheeks. I give her a kiss and feel someone tap my leg. I look behind me at Amelia and she had fresh tears in her eyes. "Can I lay with Daddy," she asks in a choked whisper.

I nod, stealing one more kiss before climbing out of the bed. Amelia carefully climbs in and takes my place, sobbing in Raven's neck. Raven holds her the best she can to try and console the child, but it was of no use. It's clear how close they are and for Amelia to react this way makes me want to find Joe and kill him myself.

Lexi walks in, looking like she just ran a marathon. "We got him," she says once she finally catches her breath. "We're about to interrogate him now."

"I'm coming with you," I say as rage fills my senses.

"It's not safe for you Anita," Lexi pleads with me.

"I wasn't asking for your permission," I snap and leave the room, dragging her with me. "That son of a bitch killed my family, nearly killed Ray. I'm not standing on the sidelines. Let me sit with him for a few minutes. I'm sure he'll confess to everything and slip unknown information we could use to find his help."

Her eyes widen and asks, "You heard all that last night?"

"Get someone to guard this room because I'm not losing anyone else," I choke quietly and she nods with understanding.

"We heard her Lexi," one of three detectives who were friends with my parents say in sympathy.

"Thanks Mark," I say with relief. "Amelia doesn't know I'm her sister so please don't tell her anything different than what she's known all her life. She thinks I'm her mother and Ray is her father."

They nod with understanding and enter the room. I let Lexi lead me to her car and together we ride in silence. Once at the station she leads me directly to where they were waiting to question Joe. At first her Captain was against it but one look in my eyes quickly made him change his mind.

Before entering the room, I compose myself. Tears fill my eyes as I think back to the man I once called uncle and see if I walk down memory lane he'll spill the beans. I enter the room and noticed he was cuffed to the table. I take the seat in front of him clearly seeing the shocked look in his eyes.

We sat there in silence for a few minutes before I ask in a choked whisper, "What happened Uncle Joe? What happened to the man who dressed up as Santa while Avery and I were kids? What happened to the man that took us to Disneyland the year before Mom had Henry?"

More silence as I watch what I said get to him. I could see the emotions clear in his eyes. After a few moments pure rage fills his eyes. "He changed when his best friend didn't acknowledge him for his part in the security development," he snarls.

I reach in my purse for the document my father had and slid it over to Joe. "Read it," I choke quietly.

I watch his eyes flit over the words on the page before he looks up with tears in his eyes. "I didn't know Anita. What have I done," he asks as the tears fall.

"You killed them Joe. You didn't succeed in killing me and you almost killed my fianceé. But you didn't do it alone," I say in anger.

"Hadley, he wanted the company..."

"Liar, Hadley died in a car accident before you killed my family," I glare at him. "Try again."

"His son Anita," he says and I could hear the truth in his words. "He's the one who told me your father didn't include me in the program. I swear I didn't know."

"Why didn't you just ask my father Joe," I ask as tears roll down my cheeks.

I see a brief sinister look in his eyes and know he's lying. "You don't know, do you," he asks snickering and I'm left confused. "Frederick Martin, isn't your father."

"Then who is? My parents had been together since highschool," I say not believing a word from his mouth.

"Maybe, but they had a fight around the time your mother conceived you and Avery. They were separated a few months and she turned to me," he says with a smirk.

I laugh hysterically and it only pisses him off. Good. "My mother hated you. She always warned my father she had a bad feeling about you, but he thought it was because of your shitty flirting. I bet you can't get it up," I say between laughs and he tries to pull on the cuffs. "Have I stroke a nerve? Is it small? Raven is pretty big for an intersex woman."

"Shut up," he shouts in anger. "Jefferson has big plans for you bitch! I want to kill you quickly, he wants to make you suffer. He knows your bitch's parents never moved. He told me after I rammed her car. How's the little brat that calls you Mommy?"

I reach over the table and slap him hard across the face. If not for his hands being cuffed to the table, he would have fallen backwards. The door to the room opens and Lexi takes me in her arms as uncontrolled sobs escape my lips.

She guides me through the sea of officers to a private room and helps me sit down. She gets me a glass of water and I drink it with shaky hands. "We got everything on recording Anita," she says in a soothing tone and I nod vigorously.

A rumble of thunder makes me jump. Lexi leads me to a different room, the stations shooting range. She grabs a set of headphones as more thunder makes me cling to her waist, shaking with fear. Moments later I feel the headphones placed over my ears and the deafening sound of the storm is muffled.

Raven

I'm worried about Anita. She not only went to see Joe but there's a current storm going on outside and I'm the only one known to calm her down. Amelia is scared asking for her mother while clinging to my right side. Anita is the only one who can calm her during a storm, even if Anita is scared of them herself.

I'm about to have my mother call Lexi when she walks in with a calm Anita. I was surprised until I noticed the soundproof headphones. Ones they use at the shooting range. I look at Lexi and she says, "She got him to confess, it wasn't pretty. I didn't know how to calm her down and my Captain gave her the headphones. She can't hear anything."

I nod lightly and say with relief, "Thank you."

Anita didn't need sound to know Amelia was scared. She taps the child's shoulder and points to the empty hospital bed. I didn't need eye contact to see the raw emotion hers held. Now I wish I knew what happened between her and Joe. She holds onto Amelia and in a matter of seconds she was calmed down and asleep.

Everyone stood amazed at how quickly Anita was able to calm her from her scared state before Anita got here. I noticed Anita was stuck in her thoughts, even if he couldn't hear the storm outside. She doesn't need the storm to bring her back to that night. I have no idea what happened between her and Joe, but I'm sure she'll tell me in time.

"He tried to make her think that her mother had an affair with him while her parents separated during a fight. Even though they were lies, they were pretty convincing at first until he slipped out of character. Other things were mentioned but they're graphic and I don't want to say anything around Amelia even if she's sleeping," Lexi says in sympathy towards Anita.

I watch her pull Amelia closer to her, arms secured tight around the child as rapid tears roll down her cheeks. Rage fills me to the core thinking of the possibilities of what Joe could have said for her to be acting like this. It must have been mostly about Amelia because her focus was solely on her when she walked in. Not once did she acknowledge anyone else in the room and under the circumstances of what's going on and her pregnant, I don't blame her. Amelia is literally the last of her family.

When she strokes the scar on her chest I know exactly what she's thinking about now. Being with her since that night and I can read her better than anyone. Most of the time her thoughts are written on her face that I don't need to ask what's bothering her and just offer her comfort. I know she'll speak when she's ready and honestly I'd rather her tell me on her own rather than push her talk. She shut down the only time I did push her and that was shortly after she adopted Amelia.

"Raven," Lexi says and I look at her as tears fill my eyes. "He knows your parents never moved from next door. His accomplice informed him after he rammed into you."

Fear. There was no other word needed to express what I feel right now. How did anyone know? Unless his accomplice was over at Anita's parents house searching for the program while he couldn't. But that would have sparked suspension in Anita if he wasn't working. Unless he gave her a good enough reason not to be for her not to question it?

"If the accomplice knows they didn't move they had to have been in her house looking for the program when there wasn't a storm and seen us there," I choke quietly and Lexi nods at this information. "And it would be someone at the company who frequently asks to leave for a good enough reason for her not to question it."

"Jefferson," Anita chokes quietly, startling me. I didn't realize that she took the headphones off. "He was my father's right hand. My father often invited him to dinner. He always claimed he was visiting his mother during chemo treatments and I didn't think anything of it because I visit her often in the hospital. She has breast cancer."

"What if he did visit her? Is there any way he could still be the accomplice," I ask curious.

"Leave that to me, I want you to worry about recovering and being there for Anita," Lexi says with a light smile. She looks to Anita and says, "As for you, focus on the baby and keeping as calm as you can. Let me worry about everything else. Okay?"

We both nod lightly and she steps out in the hall on her phone. I look over at Anita and she was looking down at Amelia's sleeping face. As if she could feel my eyes on her, she looks at me with tears in her eyes. "He basically threatened her in the interrogation room Ray. He tried to make me believe that he was my father," she chokes in a wavering whisper. "How can he go from playing as Santa to this monster in my nightmares?"

"I don't know," I say in sympathy and I hated that I didn't have a better answer. "What I do know is, is that we'll get through this, together. I'm not going anywhere until death takes me. I need you to know that, in case things get worse before they get better."

She nods vigorously and I know she wants to come to me, but she's comforting Amelia who is currently asleep on her chest. "I love you Ray. I don't know what I would have done...," she chokes between broken sobs.

She didn't need to finish what she was going to say. I know she meant about the outcome of my accident. "I love you too and you don't have to worry about that, not for a long time okay?"

She nods vigorously and let out a shuttering breath. She holds my eye contact as she takes calming breaths and I give her a light smile. My mother kisses her forehead and Anita lets out a calming breath, relaxing against the hospital bed." How are you feeling sweetie, despite everything," my mother asks in a soothing whisper, wiping her remaining tears.

"Honestly, I'm emotional. Hospitals are another trigger from that night. I was scared of losing Ray, the baby. I'm scared for Amelia, for all of us. I'm angry with the lies I've been fed by those my father trusted the most. I'm upset because I miss my family and thinking even for a second that what Joe said about being my father was true. And lastly I feel guilty for lying to Amelia, about everything she thinks is the truth," she says with her lower lip quivering and her voice cracking with emotions at the end. "I feel like she's going to hate me when she learns the truth when she gets old enough to understand."