𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐈𝐑𝐄𝐋𝐘 𝐌𝐈𝐍𝐄

ꜰᴏʀᴛʏ - ᴇɪɢʜᴛ

He could lie through his teeth every day that what he did to Rueben a few months ago with the trial, didn't affect him, but he would never believe it on a personal level. The pages of documentation that lay in the flash drive burned a hole in his pocket as he shifted into reverse and then entered the bustling streets of Los Angeles.

Jonah wanted to atone—properly—but if he was going to do so, he needed to understand where he went off-track. There was only one more thing that damaged a man beyond recognition, and it wasn't pride, nor ego—it was simply being undeniably wrong.

Flicking on his lights and siren, ignoring his moral code, he sped through the streets. If he wanted to fix what he broke and build up a relationship with the one he persecuted the most, then he was going to have to take the first steps; breaking a few rules to further quicken the process was harmless.

****

"Well, hello to you too, dear cousin," Rueben remarked.

Jonah rolled his eyes and continued down the hallway to his office; he had knocked as a courtesy, but once the door was open and he was out of the way, he strolled right in and acted as if this place was a home to him—it sort of was due to how many times he's been here before.

His cousin must have understood exactly why he showed up and brought along an entourage of two detectives because without even asking, he rounded up the others. As he sat down at the computer and plugged in the flash drive, Kaiser and his sister appeared, followed by Rayne, Rueben, and Taryn.

Rayne and Rueben immediately took each of his sides, holding onto the desk or the back of the chair while the others stretched across the wall as he eagerly typed in the few things he needed to access the document. He watched their eyes light up just as his had a second ago; the feeling of relief entered the room like a flooded street—not too needed, but still necessary.

"Here we go," Rueben whispered, watching the screen.

"The answers we've been seeking," Rayne added.

He could feel the movements of their hands on the chair as they interlocked their fingers, probably for some type of physical support as they unearthed this emotional turmoil.

Jonah rolled his finger across the mouse, bypassing the first page; it was blank and used as a last resource to throw the investigative noses off the trail. Not a good one, by any means, but it was there, nonetheless.

The moment the screen showed the next page, Rayne leaped forward.

"There!—Dr. Steven Clarke! He had his doctorate in OB/GYN in 1997! That's the year Matteo and I were born; there's no way this isn't our guy," she looked at him.

But he wasn't paying attention.

As she listed off the identifying factors of the doctor that he didn't know, his eyes were scanning the lower parts of the paper. The edges of his fingers twitched and his lip curled as he read off the words, out loud.

"Dr. Steven Clarke re-enrolled in school in 1998 to become a Medical Examiner."

"—and he currently works for the LAPD," Rueben finished for him.

The room grew silent. It was as if all of the windows were magically flung open and winter was upon them once again; it felt like ice cubes were running up and down the lengths of his arms and legs, shooting goosebumps in every direction.

This was unreal.

He had known Steven Clarke since he was a baby patrolman all those years ago; every case he worked with him on—every smile he shot in his direction after a win, it was all fake. Without really wrapping his head around the idea, he knew that his connection ran deeper than these documents were describing. There was just no way that a man like him could live a lie so deeply.