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“We were all adopted out, it seems, both sets of twins,” she shared. “Apparently my adoptive parents had the two of us for a while. I don’t understand why you were returned to the foster care system. I didn’t even know this much until a few months ago, when my adopted mother passed away.”

The shocks hit the young man, one after another, after another.

She squeezed his hand and continued. “That’s when I realized what I’d been missing all my life, what had caused that ache that never seemed to go away.

It was you. It’s one thing to split up children in the same family,” she added, “but to split up twins?”

Don shook his head. “God, I kept having images of a,… of a little girl, but I didn’t have any way to back it up or to understand who she was.

I tried to reach anybody in our birth family, but I didn’t have any success with that.

I’ve never been good with red tape or paperwork or anything, and I just get angry at the people on the other end of the phone.

” He rolled his head toward her, his eyebrows raising up. “We have another brother.”

She smiled, then nodded. “Darren. I understand we have another sister, as well. Her name is Tammy. They are twins too.”

That seemed to be a complete shock to him. Then his gaze went blank for a moment, and he shook his head. “What?”

“Yes.”

“I have two sisters?” Don asked.

“Apparently you have a twin, me, and Darren has a twin sister as well,” she explained in a soft tone. “Our parents were killed in a car accident, leaving behind two sets of twins, two years apart. But we were all split up and either adopted or fostered to four separate homes.”

At that Don started to cry, and the two of them fell into each other’s arms. It was a heavy emotional moment, yet not an uncomfortable place to be.

It let Morrison see the heart and soul of the young man in the bed in front of him.

Morrison could also see energy flying around the room, heavy emotional wet energy, angry energy, frustration, fury, bereavement, grief, all of it in one big mixed-up mess.

The cop even hopped up and walked away from the bed to come over and stand beside Morrison.

“He didn’t know any of that?” the cop asked Morrison.

Morrison shook his head. “She just found out when her adopted mother passed away a few months ago,” he shared. “She only found out about her other sister and brother yesterday.”

“Jesus,” the cop muttered, under his breath. “You would think the foster care system could do a whole lot better than that.”

“The two boys didn’t get adopted as far as we can tell, but both girls did.”

“Of course, perfect little blond hair, blue-eyed girls,” he whispered, followed by a snort of disgust. “And boys in that situation tend to be a little difficult at times, which makes sense if the report they got back on this guy had anything to do with it.”

“He’d just lost both parents, had been separated from his siblings, so I imagine that wasn’t easy.”

“Right.”

The two of them waited until the crying calmed down.

Sadie sniffled, looking back at Morrison.

He smiled at her. “So, now you have more family than you thought,” he said.

She nodded and looked back down at Don. “So do you.”

He nodded in shock. “I only found Darren about a year ago,” he said, “and that was by accident. I was down at the pool hall, and I walked in, and everybody was teasing me, telling me how my brother was over in the corner. So I went to see this guy, frowning, yet it was pretty easy after that to figure it out,” he added, with a headshake. “There is a strong family resemblance.”

“Does he know about his twin?”

“No, I don’t think so,” he replied, staring at her. “Darren had a bad accident somewhere along the line and got a head injury, so he doesn’t remember very much before then.”

“So, he didn’t remember me either?”

Don shrugged. “No, or me. Of course I was younger and didn’t remember him at all but”—he squeezed her hand—“I kept having these flashes of you.”

“You had more than I did. I didn’t even have that,” she whispered. “I didn’t even know I was adopted until a few months ago.”

“Of course not,” Don muttered. “It’s easier on them if you aren’t full of questions.” He shook his head, looked at the cop, then at Morrison, with an oddly protective energy. “Who are you?”

“I’m her friend,” Morrison stated.

She smiled, got up, and walked over to him. Just like a homing pigeon, when he opened his arms, she stepped right in and buried her face against him. He felt her body trembling, still overwhelmed by the heavy emotional onslaught.

“She’s been dying to see you,” Morrison shared, “afraid, happy, terrified, all of that and more. So, when she realized that Darren and another sister, Tammy, were both out there, it was quite a big shock. Just as it is for you.”

Don, his gaze shadowed, stared at the cop and then back at them. “Why is the cop here?”

“Maybe we should ask you about the jewelry heists instead,” Sadie snapped, suddenly turning to glare at Don.

His eyebrows shot up, and he stared at her in shock. “Jewelry heists?” he asked, his voice faint.

“Yeah, jewelry heists,” she repeated, “and murders.”

The color drained from his face, and he quickly turned sheer white. “How can you know about that?” he cried out. “How can anybody know?”

“Do you really think the police are stupid?” she asked, staring at him. She shook her head and buried it in Morrison’s chest, as he watched the young man on the bed.

Morrison continued on for her. “It hurt her knowing that she’s just found the two of you, only to find out that you are both criminals,” he declared. “She was desperate to find you, and then to find out about this?” He shook his head. “It hasn’t been easy on her either.”

Don stared at him solemnly. “You don’t know anything about it. Apparently she had a perfect home, and she got to be a daughter and to have birthdays and to go to school and to be a normal kid,” he responded bitterly. “Darren and I didn’t get any of that.”

“No, you may not have,” she replied, immediately pivoting in Morrison’s arms to glare at Don. “But that doesn’t mean you had to start stealing jewelry and killing people in the process. You could have just taken the damn jewels and not killed anybody. That would have been so much better.”

He shook his head. “I didn’t,” he cried out. “I didn’t hurt anyone.”

Morrison sighed. “Maybe not, but somebody in your group did, and you are all guilty of those murders in the eyes of the law,” Morrison added, his tone calm. “If it’s one, it’s all.”

“No, it doesn’t have to be. It doesn’t have to be. I didn’t hurt anyone.”

“Yet it is,” the cop confirmed. “As soon as somebody dies or is killed during a felony, everybody involved is charged with the same crime.”

Whatever remaining color was left on Don’s face quickly drained, and he looked like a ghost.