Spider-Man | Doesn't Need Help

CHAPTER 38

"Our father, like his father, was a truly terrible man. It's not just that he promised help to poor people, and then they had to pay off their debts to him for the rest of their lives. In short, he had people all over the world who did everything for him. But that's not my point. It's more complicated than that. Remember how I introduced myself as your father's brother's wife? I wanted to see what you might know. Few people know that Thomas Clark, my father, had three daughters: me, Mary, and Maggie. I don't want to tell you what your mother used to be like, because I'd rather you remember her as you do. The point is that our father played us off against each other, always saying that before he died, he would choose the one to whom he would hand over the whole criminal world. Mary and Maggie had been competing over that since childhood, when I really didn't want them to. They both hung around my father, and I was with my mother, who wasn't like them." That's why I was devastated when she was kidnapped and killed, and a few years later... Maggie died too. It was obvious everything would go to your mother, who had meanwhile started dating your father. But when Thomas died under mysterious circumstances, it turned out he'd signed everything over to me, while I was already married to Ben, with whom I fell head over heels in love—and the love was mutual. Mary... well, she couldn't accept it. And I, because I loved my sister, was willing to give her everything. Because of that, I ended up poor but happy, and she—rich. I suspect that when you were born, she and Richard weren't concerned about that... They loved you, Peter, I'm one hundred percent sure of that. But that's not my point either. When they died, everything had to be signed over to someone. It definitely wasn't you, because—as you said—they hid you from the world. It wasn't anyone in the family either, because we know what happened to everyone. I have no idea what happened to it. Is anyone running it? Were all those people free? I doubt it. And that's exactly my point. I think Edward Adams might have had some connection to all this. Why did he kidnap you and want to train you? He wanted young Parker with him. And yet, those who wanted to know knew that Mary—even though she wasn't married to Richard—used the surname "Parker" for many years. And I... I'm afraid, Peter, that you might become a prime target for these people in the future...

***

I lay in my bed, staring at the dark ceiling. All I could hear was the occasional car passing by.

All I could do at that moment was think. I thought about everything May had told me earlier. But I also thought about what I had told her. I told her about what I'd noticed about Mr. Adams. How he'd sometimes leave and then come back, and it usually wasn't the same. It either hit me harder or it left me more alone. I even told her about Devon and what had happened at the tower block.

It all fit together so damn well, and that's precisely why I felt so unsure about what the future might hold. Even May's assurances that nothing would happen to me, that she would take care of it, didn't convince me.

I closed my eyes, placing my hand on my eyelids.

I was so damn hot. Mosquitoes buzzed around my ear, but none of them bit me.

I need to get some fresh air.

I quickly got up, went to the barely hanging wardrobe, and pulled out a pair of sweatpants and a white blouse. I left the sweatshirt out, hoping there wouldn't be too many people walking by at 2 a.m. who might look at me judgmentally.

Once I was dressed, I quietly opened the window and, as quietly as I could, climbed down the wall to the bottom, making sure no one would notice.

Once I was on the ground, I moved forward.

I felt a bit strange about just going there – without the backpack I always had my clothes in, and without the sweatshirt that protected me from the world, at least to a small extent.