Uniting the Souls (Souls of Chicago #6)(67)

We talked as we ate. I told them that Aysha had called and asked if we’d keep Nicholas overnight the following weekend so she and Drew could go out of town for a concert. Isaac and Matt’s faces lit up as they offered suggestions of fun things we could do with Nicholas. They loved spending time with him and had even taken him to the park a few times when I had to work on a weekend.

We’d finally met Drew when they asked us over for dinner. He was sincere, intelligent, and crazy about my sister, enough to put up with the three of us giving him the third degree. By the end of the night, we’d given him our stamp of approval.

“I have a couple of things I wanted to talk to you guys about,” I told them, that nervous jittering starting up again in my gut. I looked at Matt who nodded at me, he knew a little of what I was going to say, but not all of it. Isaac saw the look we shared and his brow furrowed.

“What’s going on, guys?” he asked, setting his fork down and giving us his full attention.

“I talked to Matt about this because I wanted his opinion and because I don’t like keeping anything from you guys. I asked him not to tell you because I didn’t want to say anything before I got some answers,” I explained.

“Answers to what?” Isaac asked slowly. I took a drink of water since I suddenly felt like I’d swallowed a mouthful of cotton.

“Answers about what happened after you left home,” I said quietly. If I hadn’t been staring right at him, I might’ve missed the slight tensing of Isaac’s shoulders and jaw. He took a sip of his own drink and then set it down and looked me in the eyes.

“What did you find out?” he asked. I scooted my chair closer to him, needing him to be within arm’s reach.

“I checked police reports first, hoping a neighbor had heard all the screaming and called the police. I hoped they had found your father and arrested him for what he’d done,” I told him.

“But that isn’t what happened?” Isaac asked sadly.

“I found a police report on your father, but not because they arrested him,” I said, hating to have to tell him this part. “It was an autopsy report. Apparently, your father shot and killed himself not long after that night.”

Isaac covered his face with his hands and his shoulders began to shake as he cried softly. I knelt beside his chair and put my hand on his back. He turned and threw his arms around me, burying his face in my neck. I smoothed my hands over his hair and Matt began rubbing his back. I hated bringing up the pain of Isaac’s past and I was so relieved that he didn’t seem to hate me for it.

“Sometimes I think of how different things might have been if Mom hadn’t died that day,” Isaac said as he sat back up in his chair, wiping his face with his napkin. “So much senseless anger and pain and death followed and maybe none of that would’ve happened if she’d gotten help or taken us away somewhere with her. But then I would’ve never met you,” he said, looking at Matt adoringly. “And in turn you,” he said, giving me the same loving look.

Isaac took our hands and joined them together in his lap like he liked to do. “I just wish Zane could see how everything turned out; how happy I am with you guys and all the love I have in my life.” I took a deep breath and Matt and Isaac both turned to look at me.

“Matt doesn’t know this part, because I just recently found out. I made a few phone calls to friends of mine who work at some of the area hospitals. They did some digging for me into medical records for Zane or even any John Does who may have been brought into the morgue.”

“And?” Isaac asked, his voice shaking.

“There was no one in any of the morgues matching his age or the description I gave them using the picture in your wallet. Then I asked them to check records of emergency room visits using the description along with what his possible injuries might have been.” Isaac’s eyes were huge as he stared back at me.

“Did they find anything?” Matt asked.

“It took a long time because there were literally thousands of patient records they had to go through. One of my friends finally got back to me and said they’d found someone who matched Zane’s description. Someone dropped him off at the emergency room and left him there alone. He was barely conscious and they had to do emergency surgery to relieve swelling in his brain. They also had to do extensive reconstructive surgery to fix the shattered bones in his cheek and nose, and dental surgery to replace the teeth that he’d lost. Scans of his body showed broken ribs but they were healed so they believed they had happened at a previous date.” Isaac’s hand was shaking as he covered his mouth and tears poured from his eyes.

“He refused to tell them his name, a nurse made note that he’d said it would be too dangerous to tell them his name. He was in the hospital a month. They tried to get him to stay longer, but he told the same nurse that he had someone he needed to find. He checked himself out of the hospital that same day.”

“Oh my God! That’s Zane! That has to be Zane, right?” Isaac screeched, grabbing my arms and looking back and forth between me and Matt.

“It sounds like it, baby, but don’t get your hopes up just yet,” I warned. “I don’t want you to be hurt all over again if you find out it’s not him.”

“I know and I understand, that’s why we have to find out for sure,” Isaac insisted. “We have to find out.”