Moving On [SwaggerSouls]

/Chapter Twenty-Six/ Family Business (Part One)

Wrong. This felt all wrong.

Alyssa sat balled up in a blanket on the hotel room bed as the rest of the crew and I (excluding Bee) sat crammed on the couch across from her. After tonight's events, Ryan said that Alyssa should reveal her truth to all of us; not just to me. I'd immediately protested, saying that I should talk to her about it one-on-one because of everything that's happened and her current state, but the two of them had shut me down.

I agreed with what Ryan had to say: that we should all know the truth but was this really necessary? Asides from the fluffy bed and couch, this felt like something straight out of a movie. It felt like we were in an interrogation room.

We had no choice but to interrogate her, but if she said something that threatened us in the slightest, we would have no choice but to send her away. Which is why I wanted to question her on my own, not only so the atmosphere would be much calmer, but so I could interpret and determine the truth on my own.

While this girl meant a lot to me, I wasn't stupid. I knew the consequences this situation could have on me and my career, which is why at the end of the day I had no choice but to tell her to fuck off, I would.

Nothing would come between my family and I.

While we were doing what was best for us, as a family, I just couldn't help the fact that this whole situation had left a bad taste in my mouth. Did it really have to come to this?

"Alright..." Cam trailed off beside me, "I think I speak for the rest of the room when I say I've never had to do something even remotely close to this before."

We all murmured in solemn agreement.

"We've all come up with questions that we want you to answer, and with there being a very large number of us here, we'll be able to quickly pick up on any 'ticks' in response to them. Therefore if one of us see something that sets up some red flags, such as the impression that you're lying, we'll call you out on it Got it?"

She gave us a small smile in response, "Yeah, but wouldn't it have been easier to just hook me up to a lie detector and call it a day?"

"Yeah, it would've been," He returned her smile, "But it's about three in the morning right now and honestly fuck having to wait until morning. None of us would have been able to sleep after what just happened, so we might as well just get it over with."

I felt myself heat up a bit more, "If you would prefer that we waited until tomorrow to or you wanted a less formal interrogation." I clipped, looking at the rest of the room's occupants, in awe with how fine they were with torturing this poor woman like this immediately after everything, "I still can ask you this shit just fine on my own. Just say the word."

She gave me a sweet smile that made me melt in place a little, "It's alright, Eric. They should know just as much as you do when it comes to the truth behind me being here." She looked around at all of us, "Thank you for bearing with me and keeping me here, I'm sorry for tonight's events and all the trouble I've caused between you. But I agree whole-heartedly that I owe you all some kind of an explanation. I can't say I really know what went on myself, but I'm willing to offer up any kind of information you desire in order to eventually get to the bottom of it."

"We'll be the judges of that." Mason chirped as I just shot him a death glare that he shrugged off.

I slowly shook my head in exasperation as Cam continued, "Alrighty then. Let's start off simple: What's your real name?"

---Alyssa's POV---

"Alyssa Clarke."

You couldn't hear so much as a pin drop as the entire room observed me and the amount of truth in my words. When I agreed to answer whatever it was they wished, I hadn't imagined something as crowded as this. If anything I thought that Eric and Ryan would've just sat down with me alone in the room we were already in.