Page 109 of Heart of a Villain

“And it only took a decade or so,” Adrían quipped.

“Fuck you, Delgano.”

“Bet you wish you could.”

She scanned him. “I kind of do, but Blue Eyes over here is still calling my name.”

“He’s married to Sayeda’s sister,” Adrían offered.

Hannah’s eyes opened wide. “The twin? You found her?”

Now, they were all on their feet.

“You knew?” Mike asked.

“I knew there was a rumor,” Hannah explained. “My mother said Mora had twin girls, and one died, but my grandmother made a couple of comments about not believing it. Mora had a lot of insecurities, so instead of being forthcoming, she had a tendency to create stories.”

“Lie,” Julien corrected. “She had a tendency to lie.”

Hannah angled her head. “Well, yeah. So, before my mother stepped in, Mora gave the babies up for adoption. Then, something suddenly ‘happened’ with the adoptive family, so my mother, Mora’s sister, took Sayeda. The babies were adopted separately, from what I understand. According to my Grams, Mora was afraid of being a mother, never mind a single mother to twins. Also, according to the same family lore, she never told them she was married, and she never told her husband she was pregnant.”

“How did he end up with Eesh and her with Saeyda?” Joel asked.

“These are all rumors, you know?”

“Tell us anyway,” Mike spat.

“Aron found out about the babies and found them, and he didn’t bother with paperwork. He literally just took Sayeda and Ayesha away from their adoptive families. Mora found out that not only did he learn about his kids, but he had the yoga instructor he cheated on her with playing ‘Mommy’ to them, which would piss me off too. I don’t know the details surrounding how she got Sayeda, but I know she took Sayeda and hid her, which was easy because if I know my aunt, Aron probably didn’t know anything about her. Not anything real. Nothing about her family, where she grew up…none of it. I heard he spent years looking for Sayeda until, one day, he stopped.”

“I think Mora told him something,” Julien offered. “I’m a father, and if he went through all that to get his girls back, he wouldn’t have just given up. I think she told him Sayeda was dead.”

“But why would he tell Eesh about her on his deathbed?” Gage asked, frowning. “And, based on what I’ve learned about this woman, I wouldn’t be surprised if she intentionally only took Sayeda so Aron would be forced to look at his failure’s face every day. He’s got one baby girl and has no idea where the other one is.”

Hannah continued to stroke her neck, slowly bobbing her head. “It’s something my aunt would do. She likes to be insidious like that. Hurt you deeply. Pretend to look out for you and then turn a gun on you.”

Adrían thought back to that moment when they found Hannah and the burning van. If he’d known even a quarter of this about Mora, he wouldn’t have stopped searching for Sayeda. At least, it was what he wanted to believe. At the moment, he was using his current brain to try to direct the actions of a twenty-four-year-old with little to no life experience outside of violence.

“I can help with Mora,” Hannah went on. “I can keep an eye on her. I don’t want anything for it; I just don’t like her being this close to my cousin. But I don’t want Sayeda to know I’m alive. I can only imagine how much all that she’s learned has affected her already.”

The group turned to Gage.

“Don’t venture too far,” Gage said. “Would hate it if we accidentally mistook your distance for running.”

“I won’t. Actually, let me give you my information.”

Julien waved the device. “No need. I’ve got it already.

CHAPTER

TWENTY-EIGHT

Adrían entered the house, a garbage bag strewn over his shoulder, his shirt and shorts covered in dirt. He shook his hair, grass and small pebbles flying out, and he made a mental note to run the robot vacuum in the event he was tracking more debris than he realized inside the house.

It had been a few weeks since Sayeda’s revelation. In those weeks, he’d allowed her to have the space she’d requested, for the most part. He was never too far, but the intimacy of their relationship had changed considerably.

Died, mostly.

For now, he would allow it.