Run Away

The answer seemed clear. It may change tomorrow. But for tonight he knew what he had to do.
Simon might not have stepped in front of the bullet when Luther shot Ingrid. But he would step in front of the bullet now—no matter how much it hurt. He listened to his wife’s beautiful laugh, and he knew that he would pay any price to keep hearing it.
So he made a solemn vow. There would be no more secrets.
Except this one.

“This secret isn’t like that. This secret will destroy her.”
Through the door, they heard Ingrid call out in a happy singsong voice, “Dinner’s ready! Wash up, everyone.”
“We can’t tell her, Dad.”
“It might come out anyway. She may even already know.”
“She doesn’t know,” Paige said. “The adoption agency doesn’t have the records. Only we know the truth.”

“I think he knew what he was doing.”
“What do you mean?”
“I think Aaron loved the idea of a sister. He didn’t want to lose me. He needed to keep me hooked so I didn’t abandon him—and maybe, maybe he also wanted to get revenge on his birth mother. He was the child she threw away—why not destroy the one she kept?”
“And you never confronted your mother?”
“No, I did.”

“Okay, but see, he was attacked. Viciously.”
“That was wrong,” Paige said.
“Maybe, maybe not. That’s not my point. But Doug told me that a man with a ski mask assaulted him. It was Aaron, right?”
“Yes. I should have never told him what Doug did to me.”
“Why did you?”
Paige said nothing.
“I couldn’t figure that out. But then Mulzer told me what Aaron kept screaming at him during the beating.”
Tears came to Paige’s eyes. They came to Simon’s too.
“‘No one hurts my sister.’”

“You know what struck me as weird about your apartment in the Bronx?” he continued. “There were two single mattresses—one on either side of the room.” He spread his hands. “What kind of young couple doesn’t share a bed?”

She put her head on his shoulder as she had done a million times before.
There are few moments of pure bliss in this life. Most of the time, you don’t realize that you are having one of those moments until they are over. But that wasn’t the case right now. Right now, as Simon sat with the woman he loved, he knew.
And she knew.
This was bliss.
And it wouldn’t last.

“I came back to the apartment early and saw…Mom wore hospital scrubs. They were covered in blood. I guess she dumped them later. But when I saw her, I freaked out. I ran.”
“Where?”
“Another basement. Like Rocco’s. I got two fixes. Laid down there for hours, I didn’t even know how long. And when I woke up, I finally saw the truth.”
“What truth?”
“My mom had killed someone. Think about that for a second. They say you need to hit bottom before you can get better. When you realize that you made your mother kill a man, that’s rock bottom.”

“You’re my daughter. I’ll always protect you. Always. And I’m proud of you. You’re trying to do the right thing.”
She moved in next to him. Simon put his arm around her, kept the other hand on the wheel.
“But you didn’t kill Aaron.”
He could feel her stiffen under his arm.
“The beating was two days before he was murdered.”
“Dad, please let it go.”
How Simon wished that he could. “You called your mother. Just like you said. You asked for help.”

Dee Dee had been standing right in front of Aaron and Paige’s room.
Again: Why? If you already killed Aaron, why would you go back to his room? Why would you, as Cornelius had noticed after the cops left, kick down the door to get in?
It didn’t add up.
Unless you hadn’t been there before.

“Your face,” she said.
“What?”
“When I failed before, when I let you down, your face, the look of disappointment…” She stopped, shook her head as though to clear it. “If I failed again and saw your face, I thought maybe I’d kill myself.”