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I didn’t want to consider that Mom could have lied about something this big. Or that she could have kept away a father who just wanted to be in his daughter’s life.
I jerked my head toward the movie theater. “We should go inside. Our movie has already started.”
Torrence nodded. “I’m in that one over there. But, Bel? Could we meet? I’m sticking around until your mother’s funeral. I want to pay my respects. But I’d really like to talk to you before then. I can come to you. Or we can meet at a café…”
I shook my head on instinct. “I don’t…”
He jumped in before I could say no. “You have a family you haven’t even met, Bel. Sisters. I married again after your mother…”
I blinked at him. “You had more kids? I have siblings?”
He smiled proudly and pulled out his wallet. “Here’s my business card. My cell phone number is just there. If you have a spare afternoon, or even just an hour, I’d love the opportunity to tell you about them.”
My fingers trembled when I took the card and tucked it into my palm. I’d never had siblings. I didn’t know what that relationship was like. But I’d seen the way Bliss had loved her brother, Axel. How strong that bond was. How it tethered them together, through thick and thin.
I had Fang and Kian and Vaughn. My friends at Psychos.
But what Torrence was offering was different.
It was blood ties. A different kind of family. The type I’d craved as a kid, when my mother was on a bender and her friends were partying in our house, and I was hiding in my closet, scared to come out in case one of her friends gave me the sort of look that made me nervous.
The card in my hand represented the childhood I’d never had the chance to have.
It represented a family I wanted the chance to know.
* * *
Kian and I watched both movies in silence. Or at least he did. I was there, my eyes wide open, but I wasn’t sure I was registering anything on the screen.
I toyed with the edge of Torrence’s business card, tucked into the pocket of my hoodie, my head filled with questions about who he’d become after he’d left.
I couldn’t stop thinking about the fact I had siblings. Sisters. Plural. That’s what he’d said, hadn’t he? That meant at least two. Maybe more. Torrence clearly had the breeding thing down pat.
“Did you like the movie?” Kian asked as the lights came on. He stretched his arms above his head and yawned.
I blinked in the sudden light after sitting in the darkness for hours. “Yeah, sure. It was great.”
Kian offered his hand, and I took it so he could pull me up to my feet. He tossed some leftover popcorn into his mouth.
“I really liked the bit where the dinosaur ate that woman. How good was that!”
I nodded distractedly, edging my way out of the seats and into the aisle. “Yeah, sure. Awesome.”
Kian sniggered behind me. “There was no dinosaur.”
I glanced back at him. “There wasn’t?”
“You have no idea what we just spent the last couple hours watching, do you?”
The crowd thinned out as we made our way into the lobby again. Sunlight streamed through the dirty glass windows. Around us, people dragged themselves sleepily to their cars.
Despite being awake all night, I was the complete opposite of sleepy. I was wired. “I have zero idea. I spaced out.”
Kian strolled along beside me while we walked back to Psychos where we’d left my car. There was an early morning chill in the air, but I liked it. It was invigorating.
“Thinking about your dad?”
I shrugged. “More like thinking about the fact I could have had this whole other life, you know? I have siblings. A stepmom. His business card has gold foiling on it. That probably means he has enough money to buy a nice home somewhere, right? Not a mansion like Vaughn’s maybe. But a nice suburban home with a big kitchen for family dinners, and a backyard with a dog…”