"I am not ready to raise a kid."
"No one's signing you up for a Father of the Year award."
The universe is made of stories. And Maeve Fluer-Reyes had her own.
With pictured misfits in her life, the twelve-year-old was up for anything as long as she...
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SEBASTIAN REYES
"Jack Daniels or Johnnie Walker?" Kaiden's voice had an odd edge as he raised his eyebrow, approaching an unnecessarily loaded alcohol cabinet. Good taste.
Settled on an armchair, I closed my eyes to drift back over the events of the day with my arm draped over the back of the seat with my other stretched across my thighs, my lowered hand holding a piece of paper, eager to validate my denial.
One of the more sick dilemmas that the world spoon-feeds us to consider is going to great lengths to protect our children from suffering. An emotional thesis that has been easy to understand but the setback lies under the ignorance towards the guaranteed way to prevent it by not bringing them into existence in the first place.
I stayed leaned back, the document unknowingly crumbling in my hands. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I failed to dwell on kids. Or the far-stretched image of parenting, in general.
My eyes met Kaiden's, in the form of a blank stare, and he sighed inaudibly, realizing regardless of how promising the liquor appeared, I wanted answers. "Sierra wanted a normal life—a bare minimum for someone whose social circle didn't exactly consist of weak-kneed decents. After having Maeve, she wanted to come clean. And like anything in the world, her freedom had a price tag. Director Wyatt Cullen offered her freedom in exchange for Aryan Roy."
"Aryan Roy? The drug lord whose foreign supply cartel was under Sierra."
If I wasn't mistaken, he was also my father's childhood friend.
"Nonsense." Kaiden denied, a frown prominent on his features. He handed over a glass of scotch to me and went on to absently swirl his own. "My sister was nothing but a dog on a leash. Exploited, she knew turning on that jerk was the last resort. Long story short, Aryan was hanged, his son was imprisoned, and his wife committed suicide. His daughter, however, a teenager then, Dia Roy, was put in a foster home. A few years ago, Sierra met her at a party. Nothing came out of it but rumours spread that she was planning an escape for her brother. My mother had people before them until recently, she herself went missing," He finished.
The ice clinked in my glass as I brought it to my lips, glancing over at Kaiden who was on the opposite end of the sofa. He took it as a sign to carry on, "Those siblings want to avenge their parents. Those siblings want Sierra. And what a mother couldn't do, they think a daughter could. They are targeting Maeve to get Sierra."
"You think they have Althea?"
"Makes the most sense. The FBI says–"
"Where is Sierra?" I questioned instead, changing the direction of the conversation. His mother was not my headache. Nor was it my place to pry into his family affairs.
Right.
I was not thinking straight. And yet, the turmoil wasn't as evident as I thought it would be.
