The Shadows in the Hills: Triple Threat

Chapter Thirty Three

I kept my distance as she made her way through the trees. Hoping to put more distance between us and the camp before I confronted her. The problem was that she already had a destination in mind. I could see Marcus up ahead in the distance, and I knew she was going to him. I needed to speak to her first. "Can we talk?"

She turned towards me and was clearly shocked to see me. "About?" She started walking back towards me as though she had never been looking for Marcus in the first place.

"Why did you do it?"

"Do what?" I was so sick of the games and especially the lies.

"Manipulate Dad, I saw you do it."

"It isn't what you think. I was just trying to calm him down. I'm sick of all the conflict. If they are going to make a fresh start, then they need to forget the past, but they weren't going to do that on their own." She looked right into my eyes as she lied to me and I knew even more than before that she was more than happy lying to my face. There was no way I could keep trusting her after all the lies she had told.

"Is that why you are out here stalking Marcus? Are you going to wipe his memory too? Pretend none of this ever happened."

"It isn't like that. I want you to have a family and preferably one who can all stand to be in the same room together." The nerve of her was astounding, trying to pretend her selfish actions were for my benefit.

"That ship has already sunk, unless you plan on wiping my mind too?"

"Of course not. I would never do that to you."

"You already did."

"Your dad made me do that." I rolled my eyes. I couldn't stop myself. It felt like I didn't even recognise her anymore. She seemed like a completely different person to the mother who raised me so carefully. She was trying to keep her voice level, trying to avoid Marcus hearing us. It was becoming clear that she wanted to keep us all segregated. She didn't want us working out the truth for ourselves. There was something more she was hiding from us all.

"You shouldn't do it to anyone, ever. It's an evil power. No one deserves to have their mind messed with. To not know themselves, take it from someone who knows."

"Oh, and you're a saint, I suppose. You've never done anything bad at all." She might as well have slapped me. It felt like she did. I could feel the hatred coming from her. As though all her problems stemmed from me, but it felt so unfair. She blamed me for something, and it seemed like she had been suppressing it my entire life.

"What have I ever done that is even remotely close to what you've done?"

"You walked out on Brodie and took his children from him. Like it or not, you are a carbon copy of me. You hurt people everywhere you go and all for your own selfish reasons." With each moment that passed, she seemed to be making less sense. I had a nagging feeling in the back of my mind, but I couldn't quite join the dots.

"Marcus claims you two were together. It's time for you to tell me the truth." The slap came out of nowhere, and it was hard enough to make me lose my balance. If I had been in my vampire form, I might have hit her back. Instead, I just laid there on the floor staring up at her and rubbing my cheek. I couldn't believe what I was seeing.

"What the hell is going on?" Marcus must have heard the commotion and had joined us at the perfect moment. He held his hand out to me and I took it. Somehow, he no longer seemed like the enemy. Instead, his hatred of my parents seemed justified. "Are you OK?"

"Yeah, I'm made of stern stuff, as you know." He seemed to almost stand between us, keeping his arm slightly out in front of me.

"Marcus, I need to know the truth. What you told me about the pair of you, was it true?" I knew my tone was pleading. I couldn't hide it from my voice even though I tried. The truth needed to be out. It was eating me up inside.

"Everything I have ever told you was the truth. I'm not ashamed of my past, unlike some others." He looked directly at my mother. It didn't surprise me that she was ashamed. I was ashamed for coming between Brodie and Jackson and it was nothing compared to the way she had come between Marcus and Dad.

"It's not true. I've only ever loved your dad. Marcus is trying to come between us. He was obsessed with breaking us up, you know that."

"I know nothing, not about you. Marcus isn't the one with a history of lying to me. I want to know the truth, all of it." Her continued lies seemed to be telling me more than her version of the truth ever could. The pieces were slowly falling into place. She wasn't lying because she wanted to. She was lying because she had to. The original lie was so huge that she had to continue lying to cover for the first lie. I didn't even want to ask the question, but I had to. I wondered if Marcus had even considered it or if he would be shocked when I voiced my concerns.

"Marcus is my father, isn't he?"