The Broker

26. No Happy Endings

December 9th, 2019

Roanoke, Virginia

Golden Gull Electronics

Amaraya slowly turned her eyes toward the phone. Her sweaty palms were clenching her legs so hard, it was starting to hurt. Her mind couldn't catch up to this reality. "How do I know you are telling the truth? And not just turning everyone here against each other by telling lies?" There was a low chuckle on the other line. Amaraya tried to breathe.

"My information is very accurate, I investigated it myself." The Broker replied, a smile in his voice. "But if you do not believe me, ask your friend. Kaden Inin." The Broker said his name as if he was parasite on his tongue. Amaraya couldn't look anyone in the eyes. Her anger boiled in her chest. Before she could ask anything else, the line clicked off, and Kaden wrenched himself out of Zach's grip.

Without looking at him, Amaraya asked Kaden the question that she dreaded asking. "Is it true?" She could barely get the words out, her voice a raspy breath. The shock was passing, and her anger simmered into a hollowness. Kaden didn't answer.

"Mar..." Kaden's voice was pleading and he took a step forward, but she flinched away from his outstretched hand. She was suffocating. A dark cloud passed over her thoughts, and threatened to swallow her whole. All the trust that Amaraya managed to build in the last three months, slowly crumbled. Her eyes met Kaden's and he swallowed.

"Answer my question." Her voice felt like lead. Like someone had shoved rocks down her throat, and she couldn't speak. But when she did speak, it wasn't Amaraya speaking. It was something so deep inside her, that had waited to come out and tear her parents' killer to shreds. And since the person that was responsible for their deaths was dead, she needed to turn on someone.

"I suspected." Kaden replied, and Amaraya's fists clenched. "I...I didn't know for sure. I thought...but then-"

Amaraya cut him off. "How long?" She itched for the gun in her bedroom. For the knife that Kaden had hidden. She wanted to release her wrath on the world. Amaraya wanted someone to suffer for what was done to her family. To her.

"Since...when I saw your eyes." Kaden backed away from her, but she got up and inched closer to him. Amaraya could smell the fear in the room. The tension. "I didn't think..."

Amaraya fumed. "You never think, Kaden!" She exclaimed, her breathing hard. Her eyes teared up, in anger or in betrayal, she didn't care. "You keep secrets, you lie, and you just don't understand how it's affecting everyone around you!" Amaraya was practically yelling, her eyes wild. Zach backed away toward the door, but she threw him a glare, and he stopped moving.

"For three days! Three, f*cking days." She ran a hand through her hair. No wonder he had been acting so strange. Kaden had realized what she had been wondering her whole life. "Some f*cking serial killer you are! You couldn't even figure out that your own father had killed my parents. You had the answers I was looking for. But you chose to lie, and continue framing the Broker for the mistakes that your father made!"

"My father made many mistakes, okay? I was going to tell you, after we pursued the Broker angle!" Kaden yelled back at her, his face inches from hers.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Amaraya questioned, her voice low. She felt very tired. Empty. "What was so awful about telling the truth for once?" Kaden's eyes flashed. Amaraya didn't realize she was crying until she brought her hand to her face and it came back wet. Kaden had kept this from her. And it hurt.

"I was six years old when my father killed your parents. I didn't want to give you false information about things that I barely remembered. I wasn't sure until I saw that ring." Kaden's voice was quiet. No one was yelling anymore. It was just two sets of breathing, and Zach's shuffling in the background. Amaraya took a step back. Another. And another.