A Whole New Crowd(77)

He looked away. Bull’s-eye.
“Oh my god.” Shelly started rocking back and forth. She wrapped her arms around herself.
“The person died.”
Holy shit. I hadn’t expected him to confess.
He closed his eyes, cursed, and looked at the ground. His hand raked through his hair again. He grabbed a fistful of it and he remained like that as he took a moment. Inhaling, then exhaling, his voice dropped low, “I messed up. They sent a girl to me. She was on other meds, and she was asking for a different painkiller. I didn’t read the file. I was sent an email. It was in code, but it said the patient’s name and what I was supposed to give her. I swear,” he raised his haunted eyes to me, “I had no idea what would happen.”
I sat there in shock.
A disgusted and wrangled sound came from him. “I’ve been holding onto that for so long.” He looked at Shelly. “I’m so sorry, honey. I am.”
Her hands were pressed to her mouth. It was hanging open and her eyebrows remained arched high. She shook her head in a tight motion and whimpered, then jerked to her feet. “No. No, you can’t do this.”
“Honey?”
“You can’t—” She stopped, look at me, and another whimper slipped out. She pressed her hands even tighter to her mouth. “I am so sorry, Taryn. You’re right. We never should’ve adopted you. Our family is not good enough for you. I am so sorry.” She bit back her next words, glared at her husband, took her purse and left.
He started to go after her.
But I needed more. I didn’t know what for, but I knew I needed him to tell me more. “Wait!”
He sat back down. “Taryn, I have to go after my wife. She’s going to divorce me if I don’t. I know how she gets when she's in these moods.”
“But—”I needed more information. “What did Jace do?” I swallowed over a knot and pushed it down. I was so close to having the information I had been craving. “To make everything go away, what did he do?” I waited, but he kept looking at the door. He was going to go. I only had a few more minutes. “Please.”
The indecision cleared away. He leaned back in his seat. “I don’t know. I can’t tell you much.” He laughed. “I shouldn’t be telling you anything, but I know he asked out of love. He told me how violent and dangerous his little brother was. I’m glad we were able to get you away from him, if anything else.”
My stomach dropped. The darkness was forming again in me. “Brian could be violent, but he wasn’t to me.”
“What?”
I shook my head. “Jace lied to you. He said something to make you feel better about taking me in. Brian never would’ve hurt me and in the end, if you hadn’t adopted me…” Grief crashed down on me. “He might still be alive.”
If I had turned the adoption down, Brian would still be alive. I wouldn’t have left. He wouldn’t have gone asking questions.
It wasn’t only Jace’s fault. I had to accept my part. I shook my head, my voice hoarse when I spoke next. “I shouldn’t have believed it. The whole thing, this whole family thing, was too good to be true. I knew it in my gut. I should’ve listened to it more.”
“Taryn,” he started.
I heard the sympathy in his voice and shot my hand up. I glared at him. “Don’t start. His death is on you too.”
He frowned. “Death?”
“Brian. The guy that you were supposedly saving me from.” I didn’t only hate Jace. I hated Kevin too. “He’s dead. He wanted to talk to the social worker who set up my adoption. Word got to his boss that one of his workers was trying to find a government employee. What do you think they did?”
“He’s dead?” Blood drained from his face and beads of sweat formed on his forehead.
Finally. He was getting it. I gritted my teeth together. “You f*cked with my life. Someone I care about is dead because of that. His death is on your shoulders too.” I had to leave. I couldn’t stay there any longer. The thought of being in the same room with him was suffocating me. Going to the desk, I turned one last time. “Austin and I have been staying at Tray Evans’ house. He’s enjoyed it. He likes Tray. And leave Mandy in treatment. She needs to get better, and she’s trying. I know she’s really trying. Don’t mess up her life.”
I swept out of there just as the last bell rang.
“Taryn!” Shelly was waiting for me outside the office. She lifted an arm, but the doors burst open and the hallway flooded with people.
I ducked my head and disappeared from her sight. Whatever they did from here on out, it had nothing to do with me. I was no longer a part of their family.