The FBI? My parents?
“How could my parents have worked for the FBI?” The little I could remember of them was so ordinary. Day by day, our life amounted to the same routine set and rehearsed by my parents.
“Your mother always had dreams of someday making a difference, and so the day she announced she had been accepted into the Academy, I knew she had found her calling.”
“What does this have to do with their disappearance?” Aunt Carissa got up to pour another cup of coffee, filling the gray and orange tomcat mug to capacity with the hot espresso liquid.
“The summer they left you here wasn’t because of a vacation. It was a setup. They were going undercover to bring down a child slavery ring that managed to elude the federal government for quite some time.”
I could already feel my heart pounding faster. This couldn't be the same. Fate wouldn't be that cruel.
“How do you know this? Aren’t federal investigations super secret?”
A sad smile spread her lips. “Your mother was never good at keeping secrets. Besides… she wanted to prepare for the future.”
“What happened to them?” It came out as more of a demand than a question. My mind was already connecting the dots, but I needed to hear it. Never in a million years would I have thought Keiran and my past were connected.
“Oh, Lake. Are you certain you’re ready to hear this? It doesn’t have to be now.”
I spoke around the painful lump lodged in my throat. “Yes, it does.”
Finding out my parents were FBI agents was the final blow to the very fragile memories I held of them. The meager leftovers crumbled and shattered when I realized it was all a lie.
She looked at Jackson and a silent message passed between the two. If I didn’t know before, I knew now something was going on between the two of them. Something more than an investigation.
When he nodded, seeming to give her the strength she needed, she started to speak.
“Mario Fulton is an ex-FBI agent who was let go on suspicion of corruption. He was assigned to investigate the disappearance of Liliana West. She was a little girl around your age at the time she was kidnapped.”
Oh, no… Lily.
“Mario was a part of the same division as your parents. He knew them well.”
“My parents were partners then?”
She shook her head and then wiped a tear away. “Your father was Mario’s partner.”
“What?” My breathing slowed to single harsh breaths.
“He was the one to raise suspicion against Mario after he uncovered evidence of a child slavery ring. But when that evidence started disappearing, and the organization became harder and harder to track, he began to suspect Mario.”
“But why?”
“It was agreed between them that one of them would infiltrate and one of them would hang back as a backup just in case things went south. Mario volunteered to be the mole.”
I nodded and then asked, “Where does my mother come into all of this?”
“When your father reported Mario, he was suspended until further evidence could be found that he was dirty. After that, he went rogue. When your father had enough to implicate him and find the man behind the child abductions, he offered to bring him in. Your mother didn’t want to leave him at the mercy of another untrustworthy partner, so she went with him.”
I was already crying, but I didn't feel my tears as my body numbed from every piece of the story that came together.
Mario was the one to kill my parents. I just knew it.
“How did it happen?”
“I don’t think—”
“Just tell me! Please.” My voice trembled as my world spun on its axis.
My answer came swift and brutal. It was Jackson who spoke for the first time. “They were gunned down.”
Chapter Thirty
Keiran