Never to be Seen

Chapter 15

"What the hell?" I dropped to my knees next to Zayn.

The suitcase was filled with pictures and news paper clippings, and they all had the same people on them.

There were a man and woman on all of them.

"Zayn what is this?" I picked one up and looked at it closely.

Zayn picked up another picture and held it close out to me. He saw my confused expression and handed me the picture. The man and the woman were both smiling and the picture looked old.

I picked up another picture and saw the couple again, but this time they held a baby in a bundle of blankets.

I grabbed a news paper article but this time, it was only a man in the picture. He had a serious expression on his face and the headline read "DRUG DEALER."

This article looked so familiar, I closed my eyes and vaguely remember my grandmother crying as she held the same article. I opened my eyes and saw the man looked familiar as well.

I looked around for another article and found a small peace of newspaper. All it said was that a drug dealer had passed away, nothing else. I looked around the suitcase for another article but I didn't find anything else regarding the death of this drug dealer.

I turned the small article over and found another picture of the man. He was smiling in this picture, but there was no caption except his name.

"Jacob Reynolds". My last name was Reynolds.

I gasped and looked up at Zayn who had been watching me.

"Who is this?" I thrust the paper at him and he grabbed the paper tightly.

"I found this suitcase in your grandmother's closet. It's filled with these pictures and articles of the same man. The same man who has the same last name as you. He's your father" he grabbed the picture with the man, the woman and the baby "and this is your mother."

I gasped and froze.

"This can't be him! And that can't be my mom!" My heart sped up as I realized that these people could definitely be my parents.

"Zara," Zayn touched my shoulder gently and said, "it's really them."

He pointed at the child in the picture.

"That's you."

Tears blurred my vision as I looked at the innocent child. It was me. With my parents. The parents who I'd never remember. Silent tears spilled down my cheeks.

Zayn wrapped his arms around my shocked, aching body. I was shocked that it was a picture with what my parents looked like. Ache because I'd never get to know them. My heart became so heavy, it felt like a 10 pound weight had crashed down on it.

I wiped my face and Zayn looked at me.

"I know how you feel" he spoke with such sincerity it hurt to see how much he missed his mother.

I stood on my knees and wrapped my arms around him, his familiar scent seemed so welcoming.

Suddenly he pulled away and got up. He walked towards the suitcase and dug to the bottom and emptied the contents onto the wood floor.

Out spilled a bunch of slips of papers, 2 or 3 packets of white powder and in one pocket there was a thick wad of money.

As I looked closer, the little slips of paper turned out to be checks. It looked like there were at least a hundred checks scattered here and there. Zayn turned over one of the little packets over and it smelled it.