Page 40 of Tear Me Down (Descent to Darkness Trilogy #2)

“Not that she knew of anyway. I was looking up some info on Zeke after he asked to find his birth parents…and D, I'm almost positive this is Zeke’s original birth certificate.” He finally looks at me, and while I see how this discovery is weighing on him, I can also see the certainty in his eyes. “It even has his birthday correct.”

“Are you saying Zeke is her brother?”

“If this is the right Mark and Jenny Carpenter? Yes. That’s exactly what I'm saying.” A loaded silence takes over the room—a looming ghost waiting for this to explode.

It’s as if the rotten souls of her parents are lingering and watching, waiting to see their triumph in ruining her from beyond the grave.

“Is there a paper trail on her parents in Tennessee?”

“Yeah. They were both born there, and then starting in nineteen-ninety-two they had a shared address somewhere about an hour outside of Knoxville. Now, that address didn’t change until April of nineteen-ninety-seven.”

“Ashia was six months old then.”

“Right. That’s when they moved here.”

“Have you gotten any information from the hospital in Tennessee?”

“Well, Ashia and Micah, possibly Zeke, were born at different hospitals, and at first I thought that was weird, but then I read the hospital files on Micah Carpenter. Take a look.” He pulls it up on a different screen and I start to read.

With every word, the uneasiness in my chest intensifies, creating pressure that makes it hard to swallow.

“So, they found drugs in his system when he was born, and then he was abducted from the hospital nursery?”

“Yeah, technically it’s abduction because they weren’t supposed to give him back to Mark and Jenny. My guess is they took him and ran, but then when he started to detox and they couldn’t handle it, they brought him here to town and dropped him off so they wouldn’t get caught.”

“Which is why they used a different hospital when they had Ashia.”

“Exactly. Now look at Ashia’s birth records.” He pulls them up, and I start reading with sheer focus, afraid of what I’m going to uncover. Though, I release a relieved breath when everything appears normal .

“There weren’t any drugs in her system when she was born,” I say softly, the reprieve apparent in my voice.

“Nope.”

“So you're saying that after they had Ashia, they moved here? Where they abandoned their son?”

He shrugs his shoulders, not quite understanding either.

“Maybe they felt guilty. They were sober when she was born, or at least her mom was.” He gestures to the records.

“Yeah, right until she had her. Then she was cracked out of her mind in the parking lot their whole hospital stay,” I add with a smartass tone, and he shoots me a look of confusion and disgust. “Don’t ask me how she knows that, it’s not a good story.”

“Maybe they moved here to be closer to him? Could’ve tried to be better parents after abandoning Zeke?

I don’t know, D. There’s a lot of coincidences, and they have the same blood type—O positive.

So do Mark and Jenny. Plus, have you seen them stand next to each other?

They have similar features. I mean, it wasn’t as apparent as it is now that I see this, but I did always think they looked alike. ”

“Well, I’m definitely not attracted to Zeke.”

“You sure? You know Zeke is the type to swing in all directions,” he jokes, and while I know he’s trying to lighten the mood, now isn’t the time.

“How confident are you about this?” I ask him seriously.

“Pretty damn sure.” He nods gently.

“Well, we need to be absolutely fucking certain before I go and blow up their lives with this.”

“I could hack into the DCFS files again. See what exactly they have on Zeke, but I'm not sure if they’ll have those files digitalized yet.”

“Let’s try it anyway.” I watch as he clacks away at his keyboard, retracing my steps from the time I hacked into Ashia’s files, and it’s not long before he’s in.

He types Zeke’s name, but we’re shocked to see nothing comes up.

“Try Micah Carpenter.” He types again, and then the information pops up almost immediately, clear as day and staring back at us.

God, he’s right. There’s scanned notes and forms about how he was found abandoned at the hospital, how they had all of his medical files transferred over from Tennessee, and how Zeke’s parents adopted him and changed his name.

“How did Mark and Jenny not get jail time for this?”

“Back then? He was their son. What did it matter if they took him from some small po-dunk hospital? Tennessee was riddled with drugs back then, they probably had too much to handle. I bet a lot slipped through.” We remain silent for a few minutes and let the room fester with unspoken confirmations.

This is going to be hard on Zeke, but this might finally be the final straw for Ashia.

Just when she thought she had gotten rid of her parents for good, and lost her best friend over it, she has to find this out?

I can’t possibly keep this from her, but I’m not sure I’ll be able to protect her from the heart break that comes with it.

“They’re siblings,” I finally say aloud, cutting through the fog like a knife and diving in headfirst.

“Yeah, they are.”

I pace for a moment, dreading the rest of the evening, but I know what I have to do.

“Take Zeke’s DNA analysis and run it against Ashia’s. I want confirmation and have it sent to me before I get to the house.”

“I started it the moment I found this, it’ll be done by then,” he says as I storm out, needing to take the long way home to think this out.

I pause outside of the garage door, taking a deep breath and steeling my spine.

God, I don't know how they're going to take this. It sounds crazy. What are the chances that out of all of the men in this city, Zeke is her brother? Out of all the places they could’ve moved to, or all of the other options when it came to abandoning Zeke, why this? The saying ‘it’s a small world’ is an understatement in this moment, but now that we know for sure, it’s time to bring it to light—though I feel like I’m taking that illumination and shining it on Ashia’s heartache to broadcast it to the world.

I’m failing her once again, unable to protect her from the things that I can’t see, allowing spirits to continue torturing her from a realm that I can’t reach. All I want to do is silence them for her—to heal her, but every time she gets remotely close, there’s something else to drag her back down.

How is she going to take this? Knowing that Zeke escaped them and she couldn't? Imagining how her life would have been with someone to protect her? Realizing that she never had to be alone, but her parents stole that from her as well?

On the flip side, how is he going to feel?

Knowing that he came from such terrible people?

It will only be a matter of time before he asks questions, and worst of all, he’ll ask her.

He’ll want to know all of the terrible things they put her through, and she’ll have to relive them all again—a play by play of her darkest moments for his curiosity.

Perhaps I should’ve talked to him first, but if I pulled him aside after getting pulled away myself, she’ll only worry more.

Her emotions are already all over the place, and the last thing she needs is something to build up the anticipation before the blow.

I suppose if there were any time to rip the band-aid off, it would be now.

I walk inside to see Zeke and Ashia in the kitchen talking .

Fuck, they do look alike . They both have dark hair and higher cheek bones—the only difference is their eye color.

Obviously Ashia has softer features, but after seeing pictures of Mark and Jenny, I can see he definitely got his mother's green eyes, while she shares that melanin trait with their father—though her eyes beam to life while their father’s dulled over time and abuse.

“Hey, handsome.” I look over at Ashia walking up to me before she jumps into my arms, wrapping her legs around my waist and holding on tightly.

I hold her just as fiercely, like it’s been months since we’ve seen each other and not only a couple of hours.

I can feel the relief in her limbs, and it makes me feel like a fraud, because she has no idea that I’m about to turn her world upside down.

While I know this isn’t my fault, I feel like I should’ve protected her from this somehow.

Especially after last week when she finally believed that her past was completely behind her, only to be proven wrong.

“Hey, little wolf.” I kiss her softly, trying to convey my love and apologies before we even get started. She pulls back, eyeing me questioningly like she knows something is wrong.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah…” I hesitate, not wanting to lie, but I know that everything will be okay. I’ll make sure of it, no matter what it takes. “We need to talk,” I tell her softly as I brush my thumb across her lightly heated cheek—most likely from her anxiety.

“Okay? Well, dinner’s almost ready, and I told Zeke he could invite Tay over. Do you want to go upstairs?” she asks softly, and I don’t miss the tinge of fear in her voice—breaking my heart.

“It’s no big deal, Ash, I'll go outside and wait for Tay,” Zeke says as I timidly stand Ashia back on her feet.

“Actually Zeke, I need you to stay.”

He narrows his eyes at me, confused as to why I would need to talk to them both at the same time.

“What’s wrong, baby?” she asks me as she puts her hand on my chest and runs her soft hands over the fabric of my shirt.

“Why don't you two sit down?” I say gently to her as I lead her to the bar stools at the kitchen island, directing her to sit on the opposite side of Zeke as I round the corner to stand on the other edge.

“What's going on, D? Someone die?” He chuckles nervously.