Total pages in book: 149
Estimated words: 138217 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 691(@200wpm)___ 553(@250wpm)___ 461(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 138217 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 691(@200wpm)___ 553(@250wpm)___ 461(@300wpm)
So today, my favorite little sister, I must let go of the last pieces of you.
I can’t hold on to Otto, Grady, Mom, and Dad, either, no matter the pain of letting go. For the small and cheeky brothers who have become young men far from my eyes and about whom I know only fragments, I wish a life devoid of hurt and trauma, but filled with all the good things that exist. For our parents so loving and giving, I wish the serenity of knowing they made the only choice they could.
You, my brilliant, funny little sister, will live always in my heart and in my memories, but it’s time for me to release the past and live in the joyful, vibrant present with my mate and my child. No more looking backward to what once was, and no more secret hopes for a future unseen.
As I complete this, my final letter to you, I wish you and Neiza every good thing life has to offer, and that Silence gives you the peace you desire.
Your big brother,
D.
Chapter 69
Enforcement has released new information regarding the concealed Moscow Center, stating that the discoveries made there were as a direct result of the Marshall family’s cooperation.
“We want to make it clear that rather than hiding the crimes of former councilor Marshall Hyde, the head of the family unit drew our attention to them,” Commissioner Yaroslav Skryabin said in his statement. “Their integrity in this matter is beyond reproach.”
The alpha of the StoneWater bears, Valentin Nikolaev, confirmed that a senior member of his clan acted as an observer during the initial examination of the shuttered Center, and that the bears continue to be involved as the investigation progresses. “No one’s hiding anything here,” he stated. “Pax Marshall asked for the truth and made no attempt to conceal it even when that truth turned out to be ugly. That says a whole lot about the man.”
—PsyNet Beacon (15 October 2083)
IT HAD BEEN one month since the confrontation at the site of the facility.
In that time, Enforcement had done a major forensic dig there, found a large number of bodies—but less than if Keja had killed the vast majority of the patients.
It had taken a further two weeks from that discovery to crack open Keja’s finances, trace payments to multiple people who she’d set up with carers.
Fifteen.
Counting Santo and Janine, Keja had saved fifteen lives.
Theo hadn’t been able to see her aunt straightaway. At first because she was healing from her injuries, and later . . . because it hurt to think of Keja. There was a big part of Theo that didn’t blame her aunt for her crimes—she’d done what she had because of the damage to her brain.
If anyone could understand that, it was Theo.
But another part of her did blame her aunt. How could she not when Keja had been so rational for so much of their discussion? Surely Theo’s aunt must’ve not just realized but understood the murderous nature of her crimes when she emerged from the fog?
It had taken her this long to work through her complex emotions—with the help of her mate and the empath who was now family—and accept that no matter how rational her aunt might’ve sounded at times, she hadn’t been. The madness in her, the brokenness in her, it existed whether she was out murdering people or helping them.
That was who she was; she hadn’t chosen that life, however. And the latter was the reason she was still alive. It was also the reason why she hadn’t disappeared into the black hole of a prison, and was instead being held at a secure PsyMed facility meant to contain Psy.
Her mind had been locked down with a judicially mandated shield that meant she couldn’t telepath anyone, and she only had supervised access to a “fenced-off” section of the PsyNet, the fences shields created by guard minds of significant telepathic power.
Her physical guards were all changeling, or Psy with titanium shields. No powerful patient was going to escape by mentally overwhelming them. The medics who worked intimately with the patients couldn’t all be changeling—these were very Psy madnesses, very Psy problems. But the medics were always accompanied by a changeling. No exceptions.
Today, as Theo took a seat on the other side of a shatterproof glass partition, she saw two guards take position on the far wall as another guard led Keja into the room.
Theo appeared alone on this side, but her mate stood just outside the door.
Yakov had asked her if she wanted privacy and she’d nodded yes. “For her dignity,” she’d said. “I’ll give her that even if I can never undo what was done to her by the man who was meant to protect her.”
Her bear had cupped her cheek, kissed her. “That’s my Theo with her soft heart that the tiny gangsters take shameless advantage of.”