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“He said someone was controlling him, he said he could feel it, they had done the surgery and now they could hear him all the time, they were listening and talking back. God, the letter was gibberish, and when I couldn’t get through to him, I tossed it,” Mellon said. “I thought the drugs…” Mellon’s face morphed into anguish. “God, I was the only one who listened to him and he came to me. And I thought he was nuts,” he said laughing a humorless laugh, shaking his head. “That’s rich, the psychiatrist thinking his patient, his friend, was nuts.”
But no one laughed.
Mellon continued on. “He wouldn’t call me, the last few months when we spoke it could only be emails. He refused to speak on the phone.”
“Charlie and Todd told me he hadn’t been to the office, he only communicated via email before he died,” Taylor said in a haunted voice. “Someone did this to him, for a long time,” Taylor said, her voice getting shrill and panicked.
“Taylor,” Derrick said, trying to bring her back from the point of hysteria.
Taylor swallowed and looked at Derrick. “Someone tortured him, Derrick,” Taylor said. “The Datura derivatives were found in his hair samples, his tooth was removed after he died,” Taylor shook her head. “They messed with him, made him do God knows what and when he figured it out, they killed him,” she said, a tear sliding down her cheek, “and I just thought he was a spoiled brat, that he took too many drugs and turned into a monster.
“He kept me away,” Taylor said. “He found me and kept me away.”
The room was silent, so much so that when the air conditioning clicked on it startled them all.
“Well then, Taylor, if he figured it out, then we will too,” Henry finally said. “He sent someone to find you and ensured you were safe, sent packages to be given to you, and left messages with Dr. Mellon that you would need answers,” Henry recapped. “The answers are here somewhere.”
“He’s right,” Derrick said, standing and grabbing a handful of journals and passing them out to the room’s occupants, “let’s hit the books.”
Twenty-Three
Taylor continuedto look over the journals, trying to shut her mind off and figure out the order but it was no use. Her thoughts kept circling back to the same recurring thought—everything she knew was a lie.
Her mother was not the woman having a good time at a music festival who happened to meet the heir of a billion-dollar industry. She was a drug addict. One who nearly broke up a family.
Cedric was not a drug addict who was so self-centered he focused on his drug habit instead of his family. He was a peacekeeper who was taken advantage of and tortured before he was bludgeoned almost to death and then murdered.
And Taylor wondered what else she didn’t know.
“Hey, let’s go to bed,” Derrick said as he came over and rubbed her back.
“No, it’s okay, I want to—”
“Taylor, it's time to go,” Derrick said sternly, and Taylor nodded, saying farewell to Henry and Dr. Mellon. Derrick led her down the hall, along the familiar path to their room. And even in transit Taylor’s head spun.
She felt numb. She had tunnel vision. She felt her heart beating and her breath coming faster and the walls closing in around her.
And suddenly she was enclosed in strong arms. “Deep breath, Taylor,” Derrick said into her ear. “I’ve got you, it’s okay,” he soothed, holding her tight and guiding her into their bedroom. Derrick continued with his soft words, holding her close, and slowly Taylor came back to the here and now.
“What do I believe?” she finally asked. “It’s all been a lie, I don’t know what to believe, I don’t know what's real,” she hiccupped.
Derrick put his hands on either side of Taylor’s face. “Look at me, Tay,” he said softly. But Taylor couldn’t focus, she could feel everything closing in on her again. “Taylor, look at me,” Derrick demanded sternly, and Taylor settled her eyes on his. “This is real,” he said looking in her eyes. “Me and you, us, this is real.”
She reached up a hand and laid a finger on Derrick’s bottom lip. “I love you, Taylor,” Derrick said. “Now tell me what’s going on in your head,” he instructed.
Taylor shook her head. “I don’t know what to do,” she said honestly.
“You move forward, Taylor,” Derrick said.
“But why all the secrets?” she asked him, tears flowing quickly from her eyes.
“I can’t answer that, Tay,” Derrick smoothed her hair back and kissed her lips. “But I know that no matter what happened in their past, all the people who were around you loved you and did whatever they thought they needed to do in order to protect you.”
“But it was all lies and it hurts,” she whimpered. “I just don’t understand why it has to be this way,” Taylor tried to explain.
“I know, Tay, and we are going to set things straight, get you all the answers we can,” he assured her.
Taylor closed her eyes and rested her forehead against Derrick’s. “Is this ever going to end?” she asked him, her voice just a whisper. “Is this ever going to end?”