Original publication date March 16, 2016
Graham
I take Ethan outside to get him on the school bus. Brielle is in the shower. When I walk back into our bedroom, the bed looks inviting, but I have to get ready for work. Everything I have to do today weighs heavily on my shoulders, so I sit down for a moment to think.
Alex and Brielle have spoken on the phone at least once a week lately. She assures me she hasn’t actually seen him since that day he visited when Ethan was still a baby. She says he’s too busy with his company.
On the phone.
I get it. He knows he lost, but he also can’t stop from wanting to hear her voice. He’s burying himself in his work, using it as an outlet, an escape from having to sit and think how he’ll never have her.
I believe Brielle when she tells me they’re only friends, but I can’t drop the suspicion that he’ll always want more. He once asked her to marry him for plum’s sake!
Am I feeling sorry for the brat? I mentally question and rub my face, trying to wake myself up. I decide I need coffee.
I’ve been having later work hours, trying to earn that next promotion to field agent and get in extra training. Yesterday evening, I had a breakthrough. Not that I’ve done this for her, but Courtney will be over the moon. Damn that woman! I couldn’t drop it; I felt compelled to occasionally try to dig something up on the Goths. Yesterday, I hacked in. Mortimer is going down like a wingless bat. I went straight to my supervisor with the information.
Sometimes, when we look hard enough, we find what we’re looking for. Then we wish we’d never found it.
Mortimer Goth is a rotten person; I knew that. What I didn’t know was how far he went to make a little extra dough. It makes me physically ill to think too much about it. This morning, my group will launch a spin-off investigation into that disgusting web. I’m going in early today to assemble the needed documents to bring my coworkers up to speed. Speed: we need to be speedy. Lives are at stake. I wish I were the one to actually go in and destroy those m—–f—–s! I can’t wait until my next promotion.
The thing is, I worry we’re still two steps behind. That’s why my supervisor told me to share my knowledge this morning and let the others take it over once they come in to work. I got a lucky hack; they’ll finish breaking the ring.
And he was once the foster parent of my wife… I put down my coffee cup, nauseated. I haven’t been able to eat a bite since my discovery. He wasn’t directly involved, but he SUPPORTED them! Profited off them! All those missing girls…
I force myself to swallow back the bile that tries to come up my throat. I need to get to work.
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By the way, I’m not going to even pretend to know how all this works in the real world. This is my world.
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