Total pages in book: 100
Estimated words: 113741 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 569(@200wpm)___ 455(@250wpm)___ 379(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 113741 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 569(@200wpm)___ 455(@250wpm)___ 379(@300wpm)
The picture of Lynn and Abdulla sat on his desk, mocking him, showing him he’d clearly missed a major part of his quarry’s life. Lynn married Abdulla who fathered Em and Hunter, and yet, Gage had never found a single ounce of evidence relating to those facts until he sat reading a bedtime story to little Emmie. His gaze had drifted to her nightstand, the picture set with care right in the center. He’d created such a thorough background check, but sitting in front of him on a little girl’s nightstand, in a Chicago suburb of the man he’d fallen in love with was another piece to the puzzle of Abdulla’s life he’d never found. It couldn’t be a coincidence, but it made no sense at all.
Sid had only taken a few hours to assimilate mountains of background information on the entire Cooper clan. Gage spent Monday morning sifting through everything provided on Lynn, Trent, and Sophia. Through it all everything came back exactly like Trent told him. There were no variations from any of the reporting agencies Sid used. Lynn married Aaron Adams in Mexico, it was all clearly documented. On the surface, Aaron Adams showed the exact background Trent told him about yet there were no clear beginnings or endings to his life, which was exactly the MO Abdulla always used. Nothing indicated Lynn was anything different than Trent had shared. She and Sophia grew up together. He held pictures of a young Trent and a young Lynn all throughout school. There were also pictures of Aaron Adams, Lynn, and Sophia on what looked to be a vacation. Aaron wore his US Army fatigues in almost all the photographs.
As he stared at the vacation pictures, the evil so prevalent in Abdulla’s eyes was missing. He appeared taken with Lynn, genuine affection shining through, and in those shots he could see what Hunter might grow to look like. How did the evil Abdulla father such sweet children? Could Trent really have known nothing about any of this?
Now all these hours later, Gage’s gut told him the answer, and if he were honest with himself, he’d known it from the minute he’d calmed down. Trent Cooper wasn’t a part of any of this. You couldn’t fake all that goodness Trent had going on, but to call everything a massive case of coincidence… It was still very hard to believe.
When Gage left Em’s room Sunday night, he’d grabbed a brush sitting on her dresser, which he then sent off for forensic testing. They had Abdulla’s DNA on file, having gathered it through the investigation once contact was made. Gage called in favors, and rushed the initial testing, which arrived only moments ago. The preliminary finding confirmed Abdulla had fathered both children. Another complicating factor, Abdulla’s alias of Aaron Adams, soldier in the United States Army wasn’t registered anywhere in US military records, yet Gage remembered Trent saying something about benefits the children received from their father’s time in service… Neither Gage nor Sid could find any record of monies being paid to Trent from the government.
There were clear holes in this story, many questions left unanswered, but this deep ache in his heart wouldn’t give. He’d been without Trent for almost forty-eight hours. Gage hadn’t called him or texted him, and Trent had done nothing to reach out to him. Though, that didn’t surprise him. Trent was a proud guy, and Gage stormed off with such angry accusations being flung everywhere. But what was he supposed to have thought? Gage needed to get back there and figure out what had happened, because it seemed like his world caved in around him in those few seconds in Em’s bedroom. Hell, at the precise moment of finding that picture, Gage feared for his men’s lives.
Now, he needed to talk to Trent. Try to resolve these unanswered questions, but first he needed to get all his ducks in a row, and he needed sleep. When he spoke to Trent, the kids needed to be in bed or out of the house, and even then, he didn’t know how Trent would take the unmistakable fact Gage was about to blow his family out of the water. Rubbing his hands over his face, he forced those thoughts from his mind. Gage rose from the desk he’d been at for most of the last two days. He needed to be at his best and right now he was too exhausted to be any good to anyone. First, he needed rest, then he would deal with security for the report he’d soon have on air, last he would deal with Trent.
****
“No, he’s home more. Work has slowed down,” Rhonny said quietly into the phone, walking into the kitchen from the living room where Em was bent over the coffee table coloring.
“Why? Is he sad?” Sophia asked.
“Yeah, but I think some jobs have canceled on him. One of his guys quit,” Rhonny said, leaning back against the kitchen counter, bringing a fingernail to her mouth, chewing at it. She worried about Trent and couldn’t think of any way to help him. It drove her to call Sophia.
“Really? Why?” Sophia asked.
“I don’t know for sure. He doesn’t talk to me about stuff like that, but I heard him outside. He was moving those big spools of wire. He does that when he’s mad, and he muttered something about coming out and keeping everything separated for a reason,” Rhonny said.
“Oh, that’s not good,” Sophia said.
“No, I didn’t think so either,” Rhonny said.
“How are the kids?” Sophia asked.
“I think good… Hunter’s asked about Gage, and Trent told him he didn’t think Gage would be around anymore. Hunter got sad, but Em cried. Trent hugged them and said he was sorry, he shouldn’t have let Gage meet them yet, and he told them it was his fault about Gage, and they shouldn’t worry about it. Em’s at the living room table now making Gage a card with the art set he got her. She’s been coloring on it all afternoon. She wants me to drive her over to give it to Gage,” Rhonny said.