The Shadows in the Hills: Triple Threat

Chapter Thirty Five

I sat there on the sofa and idly rocked Penny and Aiden in their bouncers. Staring into space. Brodie was feeding Theo and barely a word had passed between us since he got home. I might have seemed still on the outside, but the inside of my mind was racing. I had spoken to my dad briefly when I got back, and everything with him was completely different. He still had all his memories, but with the exception of the negative ones of Marcus. The way he remembered it, Marcus had been living with us ever since he left the elders.

I had no idea what I was supposed to do. Marcus seemed his normal self, but only remembered just before his argument with Dad. All evidence of my mother's admission had vanished, leaving it all on me. I couldn't believe she had really intended to rewrite history yet again. Let alone where it even ended. It wasn't just my family affected by her actions, but Brodie's, too. Had she even considered that? Maybe she had planned to change Brodie and Jackson, too.

It all just felt so unreal, unnatural.

Her actions left me having to explain things to everyone with three different narratives to combat. I didn't have any clue what I was going to say to any of them. If she was right and my dad would have hunted me down if she hadn't lied to him, then he wasn't the man I knew. It felt like she had erased my dad from my life completely. It might have been less painful if she had just killed him. At least that way I would have had my memories, but I had nothing. Every minute of my life was a lie again. My dad's love had never even been real.

Then there was Marcus. He might have been my father, but I wasn't sure that meant anything to me at all. I didn't know much about him, and what I did know was awful. "You're very quiet."

"It's been one of those days."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"Not really."

"Is that the reason why you never made it to the meeting?"

"Yeah, sorry. Is there anything I need to know or was Gerald worrying unnecessarily?" It seemed to be his way. He was always worrying about someone or something.

"Gerald is right that it's a problem, but nothing that can't wait for now. There seems to be more pressing matters, not that I know what they are yet."

"Do you have to speak in riddles?"

"I can feel the tension coming off you. Whatever has happened is clearly bad. I would rather you tell me than me having to resort to tapping into your subconscious." I respected that, despite him being worried ever since he had walked through the door, he had refused to get the answers for himself. It meant something that he would stay out of my mind even when he knew something wasn't right. After what my mother had done, I wasn't sure I could cope with Brodie poking around my mind, too.

I shrugged my shoulders. "Nothing really. My dad is a psycho who wanted me dead. My uncle is my father and my mother is twisted and has fled from camp. Just another day in the world of my family, really." He jumped forward and unsettled Theo as he did. Theo had been snoozing away in Brodie's arms, but was wide awake suddenly. Brodie told me that he thought he was staying in werewolf form because it was easier to move around on all fours. He was rebelling against being contained already, and we still had years of trying to keep him where we wanted him. Something told me we were going to lose that battle.

Once Theo was safely roaming around the playpen, Brodie grabbed hold of my hand. "You're going to have to run that one by me again and slower, please."

"John tried to kill Mary while she was pregnant with me because he believed half-breeds should be wiped from the earth. She manipulated him into believing I was his to prevent him from killing us both. Unknowingly setting Marcus on a path of self-destruction to do the exact same thing. Marcus is, in fact, my father and John, my murderous uncle. I suppose that bit didn't change much at all, they just swapped places. Mary wiped all evidence of Marcus trying to kill us all from John's mind, before following Marcus out to the woods, intending to do the same to him, I guess."

I took a deep breath before continuing. Every word was coming out so fast. Like I needed them out of me to stop the thoughts from poisoning me. "I followed her because I saw what she did to John and confronted her where she knocked me about a bit and finally admitted the truth. She wiped some of Marcus's memories, but I stopped before she got too far. She managed to get rid of the bit where he found out the truth about me, though. I told her to leave, and she was more than happy to flee after blaming it all on me."

"OK. Where does that leave things now?"

"I have no dad anymore. I daren't tell John the truth. Suddenly, he seems more dangerous than Marcus. At the same time, I feel like I owe it to Marcus to tell him the truth. He's spent a good portion of his life letting the idea of my parents being together ruin him. I don't even know if my parents were ever actually together. It could have all been an act. She seems to still love Marcus and hates me for keeping the pair of them apart. I don't know what I'm meant to do, but I can't keep running it all through in my mind. The whole thing is exhausting."

"None of this is your fault."

"I know." There was no way of thinking it was anyone's fault but my mother's. She just showed her true colours when she tried to pin it on me. John might be murderous and Marcus might have been out of his mind, but neither one was remotely evil compared to her. That power of hers shouldn't even exist. It was a corrupting force and something I didn't want anywhere near the babies or me.