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“If by that, you mean him setting the stage to come clean, then yes.”
“She’s alive?” Nebraska whispered.
Fuck.
My gut felt as hollow as her eyes looked.
“Yeah, baby, she’s alive.”
She sucked in a sharp breath.
“You…” Nebraska trailed off and stepped back, hitting the back edge of the couch. She grunted, skirted around it, and continued her retreat.
Fuck.
“Nebraska—”
“Pigeon…”
“That’s her—”
“I know that name,” she hissed. “I’ve heard it. I’ve heard stories. I thought she was… I thought… Dove, Pigeon.” Nebraska’s head shook wildly. “They knew. They all knew.”
I wasn’t tracking.
“Who’s they?”
“Zane, Dutch, and Badger. They had to have known.”
Goddamn it.
She was losing it.
Not that I blamed her but fuck, it killed to watch.
“Babe—”
“Charlie,” she seethed. “My father.”
I needed to guide her back to a place of relative calm where I could explain what I knew then hopefully guide her to a place where she could have a conversation with Charlie so he could give her what she needed. When she started pacing I knew she wasn’t ready to have any sort of civilized exchange.
“He knew. Maddon knew. My team knew. You knew. Everyone fucking knew. But…me,” she finished on a shout then continued to yell as she raged, “I was twelve when I went to my mother’s funeral. I was twelve when I went to live with a stranger. I was a fucking child and my mother faked her death. Did she want to get rid of me so desperately she faked her own death—”
“Stop,” I cut in. “You have every right to feel exactly how you feel but you’re going down the wrong path.”
“Oh, really, I have the right to feel what I’m feeling? Thanks for the permission, asshole.” She heaved in a breath. “No shit, I get to feel what I’m feeling. I was twelve when my mother left me with a stranger. I was a child and she gave me to Charlie so she could what? Go live her life without me tying her down? She could go back to being Pigeon without the annoying little—”
“Enough,” I shouted over her. “Don’t do that.”
“Do what?”
I didn’t answer her because I didn’t know how to say what I wanted to say without giving her more than she was ready to hear. I also couldn’t tell her that hearing her call herself an annoying anything made me want to throat punch her mother for making her feel unwanted, and strangle the life out of Charlie for allowing this to go on for as long as it had without giving something away I didn’t fully understand.
But I had to give her something.
“Zane was unaware you didn’t know about your mother until Charlie admitted you thought she was dead the night he came to visit.”
“You thought I knew and I was playing along with the fucking lie so you were keeping that information to yourself until you could use it to your advantage.”
