The Unspoken Truth

Chapter Nine [Edited]

CHAPTER NINE

Annie's POV

        The living room floor is scattered with prints of the newspapers from the last few weeks. My eyes shift between articles, reading each word. I decide for myself what is the truth and what isn't. Twenty minutes later, I am finished and I have a pile of cut-out articles sitting next to me. The ones that aren't the truth. I pick the up pile and rifle through the pages. My eyes widen when I find out who wrote all the wrong articles. Mason Stephenson.

        I stand up quickly, my slippers skidding across the carpet. The fuzz on them stands up, like I just rubbed them with a balloon. I race up the stairs, flinging clothes out of my closet, trying to decide what to wear. Dressing in record time, I run down the stairs, grab my bag and walk as fast as possible to the job I was fired from last week.          

        I burst in the front door, Kreysten glances up at me with a confused expression on his face. I ignore him and strut into the journalists' office. Mason is sitting at the desk farthest from the door, typing words into his computer. A steaming cup of coffee with cream floating on the top is seated next to him. I walk across the room him, my shoes making a clicking noise against the hard tile. "Mason," I say.

        He looks up at me. "Can I help you, Annie?"

        I drop the pile onto his desk. "Explain this."

        He picks up the papers. "These are articles I wrote."

        "Yeah. They're wrong," I say.

        "Excuse me?"

        "The information in the articles is wrong."

        Mason's eyebrows furrow as he studies an article, "You're right."

        His quiet voice startles me, "Did you have any idea about this?"

        "No. I hadn't the slightest clue," he said softly. "I will take care of it, Annie. Thank you for the heads up." He smiles and goes back to his work. He acts like things like this happened to him all the time.

        My lips part, my brain rushing to find something to say, to do. To convince him he needs to act immediately. I come up blank so I turn and walk out his door. Kreysten is indulged in a book when I pass him, not even noticing my presence. I hitch my bag further onto my shoulder and walk back onto the streets. I will not let Mason do this on his own. If he doesn't understand how this happened then there is someone else behind it. But who? I think about it for a long while as I walk down the twisted streets. I pass a hospital and spot a girl gazing out the window. She looks shockingly familiar. Thinking I had seen her walking around with Mason, I go into the hospital, intent on finding out. I walk up to the front desk and ask to see the girl staring out the window. "Are you her boss? She told her boss to come by to talk to her."

        "Yes. I am her boss," I say quickly, "I am here to discuss payment and vacation days with her."

        "Come this way," she says. We ride the elevator to the second floor and she takes me to the girl's room. When I step into the room, the girl looks up, confused. "I'll leave you two alone," the nurse says, leaving the room.

        "Who are you?" I ask her.

        "Who am I? Who are you?"

        "I'm Annie Morter. I'm an editor," I tell her, wincing as the sour words roll off my tounge.

        "In that case, I'm Cassie Stephenson. I'm a teacher," she says, crossing her arms over her chest.

        "Are you Mason's wife?" I say. She looks like she might explode with laughter but she does her best to contain it. Her face becomes red as she tries and I consider running into the hallway to get a nurse. She laughs for a long time once she lets herself. When her laughter dies down she still giggles a little as she talks. "No, we're just friends."

        "Then why do you have his last name?" I ask.

        "I do?"

        "You didn't know that?"

        "No," she sits up fast in her hospital bed, tugging lightly on medical cords that are restraining her. "Oh my god," she says. Her voice is quiet and raspy.

        "What happened?" I say, moving to help her.

        She pushes my hands away, her eyes picking up to meet mine, "Mason is my brother."

        "Your what?" I say, astonished.

        "My brother!" She exclaims. "It all makes sense now. He was put in the other foster home... Oh my god..."

        "Can you be sure?" Thoughts sizzle through my head. I consider getting the nurse again.

        "Yes. I have to go to him," she says. She tries to pull up from her bed but the cords attached to her don't let her move. I help her ease herself back down to the pillow. "I won't say anything to Mason," I say. "Don't worry."

        "You'll do that for me, Annie?" she says.

        "Of course," I say. "You just found your long lost brother right after you were hospitalized. You've had a tough week."

        She smiles a weak smile and I head downstairs to the lobby. Mason is on a jog two blocks down the road and I walk faster to catch up with him. "Hey," I say when I reach him.

        He is out of breath and when he speaks, his words come out enclosed in little puffs of air. "Hey Annie," he says. "What's up?"

        "Not much," I say, running alongside him.

        "Cassie is in the hospital," he says. "Second degree burns."

        "Yeah," I say. "I just saw her."

        "I didn't know you knew her," he says.

        "It's a long story," I say, "You should go see her."

        "I know," he says, "I want to, but I've been so busy lately." He picks up the pace and my breath falters. We chase the cracked sidewalk down forty fifth street, outrunning the cars and buses racing next to us on the street. "What did you two discuss?"

        My mind races, trying to come up with an answer without giving anything away. "Oh, you know, stuff."

        "Sounds like an interesting talk you had," he laughs.        

        "You have no idea," I say, returning his smile.