Page 88

“I’m sure,” she answered with a smile. But that wasn’t true. The case had been mired by several hallucinations, and Valerie knew that it was only a matter of time before the FBI figures out that she isn’t fit for duty.
But she was strong. She’d fight the illness that had eroded her mother and sister’s sanity.
And maybe she’d win.
“Say hi to Angela and the kids for me,” she said to Charlie. “And let’s hope I don’t have to come over there and save you from the bad guys again.”
“I think we’re even on that score,” Charlie joked.
He got in the car and drove off into the distance. Valerie turned to her apartment building, but as she opened the front door, Tom was standing there.
“Hey,” he said, giving her a hug. But she felt as though it was only half meant.
He handed her an envelope. “I was checking your mail, this arrived from the Mesmer building. I figured it might be your dad’s DNA results.”
“Couldn’t it wait until we got inside?” Valerie asked.
“I ... I’m not going up with you, Val.”
“Why not?” she asked.
“You’ve been shutting me out,” he said, sighing. “And it feels like you don’t even want to go through with the engagement sometimes.”
“I do...”
“Look me in the eyes and say that, Val.” He stood there, waiting.
Valerie looked at him. She wanted to tell him about the hallucinations. She wanted to tell him about how she felt hermind was slowly crumbling piece by piece. But she couldn’t. That would have laid bare her doubts about their life together if she was destined for a psychiatric ward.
She couldn’t even tell him about how close she had come to death, and what she’d seen down in that boiler room.
“Your silence says everything,” Tom said. “I think you need to figure out what you want from me, Val. Do you even want to marry me? I’ll be waiting for an answer.”
“Tom...”
But she didn’t say any more than that, she just watched Tom walk away to his car and drive off. She felt numb inside.
As she walked up the stairs to her apartment, the exhaustion took over. The envelope felt heavy in her hand, but as she entered the apartment, she still opened it, not sure if she was ready for what it would say.
Valerie felt faint at the lab results. She staggered through to her couch and sat down, still reading it.
Not only was her dad not her biological father, but the boys in the lab at Quantico had made another startling finding. They had a DNA sample on record with a 96 percent probability of being her paternal parent. His name was Jake Wilson, and he was dead. Killed in an as of yet unsolved homicide.
Valerie felt a storm of emotions in her mind. She couldn’t process all of it emotionally, not yet. The only thing that was holding her together was her training. Training that taught her how to navigate true peril. In this case, it felt like Valerie’s entire identity was the thing at stake.
She remembered her visit to see her mother. During one of her visits, she had, in a psychotic rage, almost mocked Valerie about her father. At the time, Valerie hadn’t known what she meant.
But now she began to understand.
A cold sweat washed over her, and she knew in the pit of her stomach what her next move was. She would investigate the murder of her real father and try to figure out if her mother had been involved in his death.