can’t stop the tears. They are falling out of my eyes quicker than I can stop them.
“Hey, do you want me to stop?” he asks. I just shake my head at him and hope he continues. “Okay, but if you want me stop at any time, just let me know and I will, okay,” he says. All I can do is nod this time. “Collin is also a cop, detective actually. Has no girlfriend and probably never will. He begged to come with me, but I wouldn’t let him. He wanted to meet you so bad. He thinks he will know just by being in the room together if you are his sister or not. We all wanted to meet you.”
My heart is breaking right now. I have never wanted to meet these people. I have tried to make myself hate these people for the past ten years. Right now in this moment though, I want to meet them. I want to meet the brothers I got cheated out of having in my life. I’m just not sure I’m ready to meet my parents yet. Brody is still quietly sitting there looking at me. I know he’s waiting on me to say something, but right now I can’t think of anything. I’m still not sure I can handle having all of these people in my life.
“We are all cops. My best friend is a cop who is always around. Collin has a great friend too who can help watch out for you. I know it’s scary to go back to a place that holds so many bad memories for you, especially when there is somebody out there that knows you saw them that night. But Callie, if he hasn’t found you in ten years, I don’t think he will. It’s probably been forgotten by now. It was probably a gang thing that went down and now it’s over. I promise we will keep you safe. Please just come back with me so we can all get to know you. I know you have all summer free. So please just come back with me.” I believe him. I really do think he would do anything to make sure I was safe. I could be walking into a trap, but I really do think I want to meet them. The only problem is the one person Brody didn’t want to tell me about, Molly.
“I only have one question,” I say to him.
“You can ask me anything. I promise to always be one hundred percent honest with you,” he says, suddenly looking very hopeful. Here goes nothing.
“What about Molly? What does she think of all of this? I’m pretty sure she’s not going to be welcoming me with open arms. What about her?” He lays his head back on the couch and takes a deep breath before looking back at me.
“Did Detective Clayton tell you what happened last week?” he asks.
“He said she was in a bad car accident, but was going to be okay. She had a lot of bruises and scratches and she needed some blood, that’s how they found out she wasn’t your sister.”
“She was in an accident. She did lose a lot of blood and she does have a lot of bruises and scratches. She also hit her head……hard. She is in a coma right now, but they see no reason for her not to wake up. I talked to my mom this morning and she said the doctor had already been in and they still were very confident she would wake up.”
Wow. I could have sworn Clay said she was fine. Why would he not tell me this? I have no idea what to think now. Do they only want to meet me because they think their daughter is going to die? Maybe this is a bad idea. Brody is just looking at me with pleading eyes now. He knows what I’m thinking. He may even think the same thing. “Why are you really here?” I ask him.
“I am really here because I was curious. I wanted to meet you. I planned on coming here and begging you to go back with me for my parents, but I never planned on actually wanting you to come with me. I want you to come with me. I don’t want to leave you here by yourself when you have a family you could be a part of. We want you to be a part of it. I love my sister. My parents love my sister, but that doesn’t mean we don’t want you in our lives too. This week has been hard on my mom. Between Molly being in a hospital bed in a coma and