Shay Warner ran away from her adopted family as soon as she found out what they truly were: criminals. They lied, they killed, they betrayed her in a way that scarred her forever. It isn't until the police catch up to her that she's forced to go bac...
She found herself staring at the photo on the wooden table next to her, with a black frame and a snapshot of a woman wearing a military uniform. Her dark hair was tied up in a bun and she had a face shape that was similar to Shay's. Looking closer, it looked like her eyes were also blue. Was this Val when she was younger?
"What's going on?" Val probed as soon as they all sat down. Shay looked away from the old photo and turned to her.
"I need to tell you why I came back, and it might not be for the reason you think." Shay couldn't look directly at her. How could she admit to going behind the back of someone who'd treated her like their own child?
Though, she did go behind Shay's back and kill her parents.
Still, it felt wrong.
"The police forced me to come back so I could give them intel on you." Shay admitted finally.
Val looked at Noah again as if she was confused by his presence, but she didn't comment on it. "Ok."
Shay waited for more but it never came. "Ok?"
After letting out a breath and pursing her lips, Val elaborated. "When you left, I did everything I could to find you. I searched for far longer than anyone knew, until eventually, I found you."
There she went again. Another truth bomb. Shay knew she should be shocked, but she was beginning to think Val was close to God with how much she knew.
"You knew?" Noah's position on the couch was slouched, but no longer relaxed. Shay noticed the veins bulging in his forearm along with his clenched fists. She bore a look at his expression and saw the same anger she was accustomed to.
"You left by choice and I respected that. You were alive and well, living the way you wanted, and I wasn't going to stop you. I didn't tell you, Noah, because I knew you'd guilt her into coming back." Val explained, her back straight and legs crossed in the arm chair. "I wanted her to come back when she was ready."
"But the cops found me first. That's the only reason I came back." Shay argued.
"I know. I didn't track your movements after I first found you and you didn't pop up on my radar again until you were literally standing in the driveway. I figured out soon after that you had been arrested but hoped you would realize on your own that we're not the bad guys."
Shay's mind replayed everything she'd heard about Valerie Brigg's, most of it bad. Alec made it a habit of reminding her of all of the people Val had killed, all of the terror she'd brought to the country. In Alec's mind, Val was just as bad as a terrorist dropping bombs on civilians.
"You weren't scared I would rat you out?" Shay questioned, noticing that Noah was still seething next to her.
"Hon, if there's one thing I'm good at, it's covering my tracks. There's nothing you can find here that would condemn me, and frankly, I didn't think you would try very hard." Val said. "I'm curious though, what have you told them?"
Thinking back to her vagueness, Shay was almost ashamed. "Nothing. Nothing of real value, anyway."
"That's what I thought. I know you must think I was risking a lot by letting you back in but you're family, Shay."
Family. She hadn't heard that word in a long time. Hadn't felt like she belonged to one in even longer. Yet here she was, in the house she spent four years in, with a woman that was more complex than a physics equation and a boy (well, man) with more anger bottled up in him than Shay had felt in her lifetime. Despite this, she had felt more accepted by those two people than anyone else in the world. She might even be so bold as to say she had felt loved in this house, if she even knew what that meant.
"So, I have one last question for you, Shay." Val inquired. "Whose side are you on?"
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