Phoenix's Lies

Truth?!

River

Sitting together I look with Nix over the piles of paper I'd found in my mother's safe. Only it wasn't all papers. Some of it was photos. Some were letters, documents. Nothing about her business with whoever her 'generous sponsor' was but something else. Something darker.

"She had someone spying on us when we were kids." I shiver when I notice the photos I remember well from being a kid. "Letters between people I don't know and her about us. A whole bunch of shit. Why would she keep this?" I can't figure out what she'd done much less why she's kept it all these years. And locked in a safe behind false books as well. "How long do you reckon this has been here? Years?"

Nix frowns. "Seems about right. Though I have to second your question about why she did this in the first place. Why follow us? And just us as well. It was as if she had something against us. Well, more than what she's said anyway." I sigh and rest my head on his shoulder as we sit and read it as fast as possible. "Hey, what's in that file?"

"Not sure, I'll have a look. Can you take a photo of the shit we've seen so we can talk about it with the others? We'll have to put back the papers so it doesn't look like we were here." The last file is the heaviest and seems to feel darker in my hands. As if containing something I'm afraid to read. Weighing it for a few seconds I hold it before opening. "Fucking hell. What is this?"

Inside I can see documents. Official-looking ones. But not to do with the family business. These are birth certificates. Signs documents of witness and secrecy. Things that I thought were adoption records until I look closer and see that they're just official ones documenting something that I hate to see. "How could we not know? She not tell us?"

Nix frowns and looks over my shoulder, not seeing what I have. Swallowing, I point to the names on the sheets of paper and he gives me an odd look before I indicate that he looks again. "They're yours and your siblings' names. What's the issue?"

I sigh, "No, look at the parents' names." Indicating to the thicker part I see that he's noticed something. "All the documents to do with Hails, Indra and Delia have my dad's name on them. Ren South. But this pile," I tap the smaller, thinner one. "That one doesn't." I tap it again and notice when he's seen what I have. "The name on the father's side isn't' my dad's. I don't know who it is but it's not him."

Nix frowns. "Izan Escarra? Never heard of it." He glances over the pages. "It's the name down for both you and Lena. the name of your father according to these documents. You and Lena but not Hali, Indra or Cordi." He sounds confused. "How is that possible?"

"I-I don't know." My voice shakes as my world crumbles a little. "Take photos again and then put the papers all back. Lock the safe and put the false books back where they're supposed to be as best you can. It's better if we don't leave evidence we've been here. I'll keep looking for a key to Dad's study."

He moves to do as I suggest, a hand on my arm. "Hey, are you ok? You seem a little shaken." Nix's eyes are kind but I can tell he's worried.

I nod, smiling sadly. "I'm ok. Just don't know what to make of what we've found. I-I'll need to look again at what the documents stay and figure out what it all means. But I need time to do that and right now we're running out of it. Not to mention we haven't found what we're looking for."

He sighs but doesn't argue anymore with me. Just turns and does as I suggested. He doesn't seem angry but I can sense he's worried about me and I don't blame him given how I reacted to what may be true life-changing news. I just can't think about that when something else might be wrong. Can't spare the time.

Hunting around a little more, Nix finishes up what he's been doing replacing the papers and I hear the safe lock minutes before he joins me in searching. Minutes tick by agonisingly slowly then, Until he finds something that I hadn't noticed on the far left side.